Heroine of the Silver Age
by Andromeda of Othrys
Summary: Sequel to 'You're family, aren't you'. Full summary inside. Sephie and Jason switch places, but not everything goes like Hera had predicted. After all, Sephie was supposed to be asleep for a few more months... but she's awake, and her memories are a mess. My rewrite of HOO with Sephie (fem!Percy). Reading the previous fic is not necessary, but it will help in understanding.
1. A Heroine Lost, A Hero Found

**_Here we go again... Dear Gods, I am insane for doing this. But then again, re-writing HOO with my own ideas is too appealing to pass up._**

 ** _The full summary is here:_**

 _ **Jason wakes up on a bus, with no memories... but if that's the truth, then why can he recall blazing green eyes?**_

 _ **Sephie doesn't know who she is... but she knows that she hates Hazel's golden eyes and loves Octavian's blues - and she hates herself for it.**_

 _ **Gaea may be the main threat to both Romans and Greeks, but the secrets Juno locked away in Jason's and Sephie's heads may be even more dangerous: they could start another Trojan War between demigods after all.**_

 _ **And the gods? They're trying to search for their Sea Princess without Zeus/Jupiter noticing and battling their schizophrenia at the same time. Their success rate? Zero.**_

 ** _Are you ready? Good. Let's dive into Lost Hero!_**

* * *

 _Where... am I?_

The subtle shaking under him, the uncomfortable seat and smell… _school bus_.

 _How do I know that?_

Jason's head was filled with far too many questions and not enough answers. Okay, dude, calm down… let's figure out what do you know.

 _My name is Jason…_

He hit the blank. What was his surname?

The uncomfortable weight settled over his heart and made him swallow bile. If he couldn't recall his entire name, would he be able to recall _anything_ at all? He knew he was in the school bus, surrounded by the kids – presumably his classmates – but he could not connect any names to their faces. Hades, he didn't even know which school he was enrolled in, much less where they were!

 _Hades?_

That little word seemed important, so Jason stored in his memory, and continued searching through his mind, keeping his eyes closed in feigned sleep. Maybe the triggers for the memories he couldn't find would come to him like that.

"Hey, Jason! Stop pretending to be asleep, we're here!"

That shocked the boy out of his thoughts and made him open his eyes fully. Blinking to adjust to the new level of sunlight, he looked closely around. He was sitting next to a cute, Native-looking girl and holding hands with her, and in front of them was the Latino boy leaning over the bus seat with a smirk of a troublemaker.

Jason tilted his head, trying to recall their names, but the now-familiar blank was the only answer his mind conjured up.

"So, the sleeping beauty awakens! Careful, you'll steal Beauty Queen's title if you continue like that!" The boy winked at him and the girl scowled at him, her other hand shooting to deliver a whack over the boy's head.

"I told you not to call me that, Leo!"

One half of the mystery solved – Leo. Jason would've preferred the full name, but he could work with Leo. Now, he only needed three more things – name of the school, girl's name and the exact location.

 _Fly, and you'll know where you are._

Jason had no idea why that thought popped up, but he dismissed it and returned to the verbal fight his apparent friends had over the girl's name.

"But it suits you, Beauty Queen!"

Leo ducked under another slap and resurfaced with a miniature Philips screwdriver, a shit-eating grin on his face.

"My name is Piper, Leo Valdez! Repeat after me: Pi-per!"

"Nope! You're a Beauty Queen! Right, Jase?"

Jason suddenly found himself dragged into the fight, and he felt a little like a deer in the headlights under the twin stares of his friends. How should he answer? Apparently, he and the girl – Piper – were a thing, but she and Leo had a sort of easygoing relationship found in the good friends, and Leo was looking at him like he was asking for a backup.

Choices, choices…

"You are beautiful, Piper," he said in the best diplomatic voice he could muster, raising his arms in surrender. He was not going to take sides!

 _But not as beautiful as her._

That made Jason freeze. Did he…? Was he…?

The briefest flash of the stormy green eyes and wild inky locks flashed in front of his eyes, and Jason grabbed onto the image with the strength of the drowning man. He had a past! He remembered someone! Granted, he had no name for the girl (?) in his memory, but he knew without doubt she was the key to his past. Whoever she was, she had the answers, and Jason was ready to go to the end of the world to find her.

"Jase? Jason, you okay my man?"

Leo was trying to catch his attention, and Piper looked worried as she clutched his hand.

"No, Leo, I'm not," Jason breathed, closing his eyes look at those strange and familiar eyes again. "I don't know where I am, who I am, or who are you two to me."

Piper flinched and covered her mouth, and Leo frowned at him.

"C'mon Jase, it's not funny. This is not a cool prank."

"It's not a prank," Jason stood up, gently disentangling his and Piper's hand. "I don't know anything – Hades, I don't even know my last name!"

 _Liar. You know her!_

 _That doesn't count,_ Jason replied savagely to his consciousness. _I don't know her name!_

"Huh? It's…" Now Leo looked confused, and Piper scrunched her eyebrows, making Jason bite his lip. Not even his supposed friend and girlfriend knew who he was. Wonderful.

 _She knows._

 _I know, stupid_ , Jason thought as he walked through the nearly empty bus to the teacher chaperone. _Give me a mo', and I'll go and search for her._

"Uh, sir?"

The teacher turned suddenly, swinging his bat around so fast Jason had to duck to avoid it colliding with his head.

"It's Coach Hedge, cupcake!" the teacher shouted at him, and Jason backpedaled hastily, hand going straight for his jeans pocket. To his surprise, he found a golden coin inside.

 _Ivlivs,_ his brain supplied him with the information, and Jason nearly tore his jeans in rush to get the coin out. He could feel the smile splitting his face nearly in half as he read the inscription _Ivlivs_ on the small round piece of metal. This was important – this meant something.

"Who are you?"

Coach's voice returned him to the reality, where Jason found himself on the other side of a, frankly, very intimidating gaze. He refused to back down, though.

"I'd tell you if I knew it myself, Coach."

The man scowled, sniffing for a second before twirling the bat in his hand threateningly.

"You seem to believe it, cupcake."

"I'm not lying!" Jason crossed his arms, _Ivlivs_ clutched tightly in his palm. "I only remember my first name and a girl's face!"

The man's scowl deepened.

"A name and a face? I don't believe you, cupcake. Showing up out of nowhere -"

"You don't have to," Jason snarled, pushing past the man. "I'll go and find the answers myself. After all," he added quietly to himself, "how many green-eyed, black-haired girls can be out there?"

An arm landed on his shoulder and tugged him back. Jason hissed and whirled around, shifting the coin to lie on the thumb of his fisted right hand. The yelps of surprise from Leo and Piper were drowned by the sudden look of interest from Coach Hedge. Jason took a step back, falling into a stance his mind could not remember.

"Green-eyed, black-haired girl, cupcake? What kind of green were her eyes?"

Jason blinked at the question. How did the man hear him? He made sure not to speak loudly – in fact, he did not speak of the girl until he got out of the bus.

This man… he wasn't entirely normal.

The sad thing was, Jason had a feeling he and the girl in his memories weren't, either.

"Like a storm," Jason finally said after a few seconds. "Constantly changing, like a sea."

The pause that followed was heavy with expectation. Suddenly, Coach Hedge cursed colorfully and slammed the bat to the ground.

"I changed my mind, cupcake. You're coming with us."

* * *

"Us? Who's us?" Leo was asking five minutes later as the Coach dragged him, Jason and Piper to the observation deck overlooking the Grand Canyon. Jason for his part did not speak a word, opting for the careful watch of his surroundings. A bad feeling descended on him the moment they entered the glass-and-chrome building, so he kept an eye out and coin ready. What the coin would do, he had no idea, but his instincts told him to be ready.

"Coach? Please can you tell us?" Piper begged, but the coach ignored them, focusing more on Jason.

"I'm guessing you know what you're doing."

"Sort of," Jason murmured, his eyes setting on his terrible copy as the danger claxons in his head became louder. That guy was bad news. "But I'd like to get out of here as fast as we can."

"They sent the extraction team already," Hedge snorted. "'Special package', they said. I was wondering… of course they would send the full cavalry for the slightest lead. That Jackson girl means too much to too many people."

"Jackson?"

The name caused a wave of nausea, and Jason doubled over as his vision momentarily whitened out. _Never speak of Persephone Jackson again to anyone._ The double overlayer of tenor and baritone sent spikes of fiery terror through his lungs and heart.

"Jason!"

"Jason, dude!"

"Don't… I can't…" Jason gasped; he felt the overwhelming urge to say something, but the words escaped him as the fire spread from his chest to his limbs, forcing him on his knees. _Please, please, make it stop!_ " _Ignosce me! Et non dimiserunt eam mane! Quaeso, Domine Mercurius!_ "

The fire calmed down at the exclamation, retreating from his limbs and forming a hollow ball around his heart. It still hurt, but Jason could ignore this level of pain, and most importantly, he could move and speak freely.

"Duck!"

Coach did not question his command for a second: he pushed Jason's friends and threw himself on them, narrowly avoiding a bolt of lightening from a flying vortex of black occupying the same spot the boy Jason had pegged as danger before.

 _Ventus._

"What the hell, Dylan?" Leo screamed, and Jason ducked out of the way of the second bolt.

"That's not Dylan!" Coach Hedge snarled, jumping to his legs with astonishing grace, and kicked off his shoes. "Jason-whoever-you-are, get those two out to the skywalk! Leave the bastard to me!"

Jason gaped for a second, a single piece of information coming to him and fritzing his mind. _Faun?_

"Satyr!" Hedge snapped. Had he said that aloud? "And that's not important now! Get. Them. Out!"

" _Ave!_ " came unbidden from Jason's lips, and he grabbed Piper's hand to help her up. After doing the same to Leo, he pushed them through the glass doors to the skywalk.

"Jason, Jason!" Piper yelled as the winds started blasting them on the skywalk. "What's going on?!"

"Monster attack," Jason let his instincts answer as he rubbed the coin, ready to flip in into the sky. "Now just keep your eyes out – monsters rarely hunt alone."

"Hunt _what_ alone? Crazy kids?" Leo shouted over the thunderstorm whipping up around the skywalk. "And we have to get back inside! Help Coach Hedge!"

"No!" He didn't know why, but Jason knew that returning inside would be their worst mistake. "Coach said extraction team is coming – we've got to wait!"

"Easy for you to say, dude!" Leo yelped as the newest gust of wind blew him to the railing, his back connecting with the cold metal. "Owowowowow! This hurts!"

"Just stay back and keep your eyes open!" _I can't protect you otherwise._

Somehow, both Piper and Leo understood the unspoken message, and Jason felt his heart skip a beat for a second at the sight of their determined faces. Whatever happened before – whatever made him lose his memories – they still knew a part of him.

Now, they only needed to stay alive long enough for the extraction team to pick them and Coach up – if the guy was still alive after a clash with a _ventus._ He couldn't explain it, but he had little faith in Hedge lasting long. But then again… he had seemed perfectly fine with that. In fact, he looked like sacrificing himself for the others was part of the job.

Jason couldn't help but admire him a little. Jumping the bullet on a regular basis for the kids you don't know well? That took guts.

The glass door bursting open snapped Jason back to reality, and he turned to the source of commotion. Coach Hedge was still alive – looking a bit singed and scruffed, but otherwise fine – but so was the _ventus_ Leo called Dylan. That was _not_ good.

Where was the extraction team?

"You're pretty good for an old-timer," the _ventus_ chuckled as he sent another arc of lightning after Coach. "I guess the Council is not _entirely_ senile. Then again, it helps having someone who knows their job, no?"

"Shut up and fight me, cupcake!" Hodge yelled, jabbing the bat – or was it a branch? Jason could not be sure from this angle – at the storm spirit.

Dylan chuckled again and opened his mouth again, but before he could speak, a silver streak sped past him and buried into the glass, cracking it in the place.

"Arrow?" Jason blinked at Piper's question. Yes, it was an arrow… but why did Dylan look terrified at the sight?

"Get back!"

A girl shouted from behind, and Jason ran back to Leo and Piper. It was just in time: an enormous bolt of lightning crackled over their heads and collided with the _ventus_ , sending him shrieking backwards.

"Whoa!" Jason heard Leo mutter behind him.

"Hunter," _ventus_ hissed acidly, standing up and facing the newcomers. "And a lieutenant, to the boot."

"Gotta admit," the girl from before said nonchalantly, walking up to Jason and his friends. "I've never met _anemoi thuellai_ who were not affected at least a little by my lightning. Then again, with the things my sisters and I have seen, it's not like you _can_ die that easily right now, am I right?"

"Clever girl," the storm spirit nodded grudgingly. "But you can't defeat me. Your lightning cannot kill me."

"Maybe not," the girl shrugged, "but I dare you to fight me and Jason at the same time. After all," and Jason could hear a nasty smile in her voice, even though he could not see her face without turning his back to the monster, "you know what they say: two kids of Zeus are better than one."

 _Two kids of Zeus are better than_ _one_. That sentence resonated with Jason in the most nostalgic of ways. _S_ _on of Jupiter,_ someone crooned into his ear, and Jason smiled. Yes, that was who he was.

Son of the Sky God.

The _ventus_ snarled.

"You may have won this time, Thalia Grace, but you will not have much time to rejoice! My mistress has plans for your cousin and brother -"

"Your mistress can go to Tartarus," the girl, Thalia, nocked another silver arrow. "And you can go and prepare her a welcome party!"

The arrow disappeared from the bowstring: the next thing Jason saw, was the arrow dropping from the midair into the pile of the golden dust which were blown apart by the weakening winds.

"Well, that was one rude monster," Thalia huffed. "Didn't give me enough time to bring out Aegis and give him a proper scare."

"When they said they're bringing full cavalry, I didn't expect the lieutenant of Artemis," Coach picked himself up from the skywalk where the storm spirit tossed him. "But damn girl, you didn't let me have any fun with the little shit!"

"No worries," Thalia waved the complaint away. "With the way things are looking right now, you'll soon have hands full with keeping those bastards properly dead. And I wasn't sent by the camp – I was in the area, hunting for the clues on Sephie, and sensed an unnatural thunderstorm. Since it didn't feel like Dad or Lord Poseidon's influence, I decided to check it out. Good thing I did," here she smiled and turned to Jason. "Hello, little brother."

Jason could only gape.

* * *

The true extraction team showed up not five minutes later – enough time for the shock to settle somewhat and Thalia to pepper Jason with questions.

"So you only remember your first name and Sephie's face?" Thalia frowned. "That sounds a lot like Lethe's work… but to remember something so specific… I don't know. I'll tell Annabeth to hook you up with Cabin 15 and see what they can do. Memories don't just disappear."

"Yeah… sis," Jason tried the new word out, and was rewarded with a small smile.

"I missed you, Jason," Thalia hugged him. "After you disappeared… well, I couldn't stay with Mom in the same house. I ran away, and she got herself killed in the car crash couple of years ago."

"Was she – what kind of Mom was she?" Jason wanted to know, his heart beating heavily against the ring of fire inside his chest, painfully reminding him of the voice he had heard.

 _Never speak of Persephone Jackson to anyone again._

Thalia's face darkened.

"Bad enough you shouldn't miss her. Now," she pushed him gently to the chariot with the extraction team, "I have to go back to the Hunters. Annabeth will take care of you until you get into the swing of things. Oh, and Jason?"

"Yes?"

"Set your sights on the girls you can have," she winked at him, and Jason flushed. How did she know? "Sephie's spoken for."

"And her beau is not the one you want to piss off," Butch, the chariot driver snickered. "Remember Austin?"

"Gods, don't remind me," Annabeth groaned. "I had to listen to Cabin Seven's moaning for two days straight! Next time someone manages to offend a god enough to destroy their cabin, I'm not designing them a new one!"

"Her beau?" Leo asked, hopping a little in the place.

"Sephie's dating a god," Thalia smirked. "My and Jason's half-brother, actually: Hermes."

"A god?" Piper's voice was faint, and Leo stilled for a second. Jason could not fault them. Dating a god? Not that she wasn't pretty – because even from a glimpse he had seen, she was gorgeous, and the picture Thalia showed him of her, Sephie and Nico Di Angelo (son of Hades) only cemented that impression, but a god?

"Yup. It's really complicated, but somehow they made it work," Annabeth tapped the edge of the chariot with her knife. "Now get onboard, Lightning Boy; I want to return to Camp as fast as possible."


	2. An Immortal Perspective

**Okay. I thought the response to the first chapter of You're family, aren't you? was crazy. I was wrong. So, so wrong. What the ever-loving Hades. Can I say I love all of you?  
**

 **A lot of you had suggestions and ideas what they wanted to see here, so I'll address them here. However... One thing needs to be cleared up, now. If you want me to hurry up writing _this_ fic, comment on _this_ fic, _not_ on one of my HP fics. Not cool, people! (I deleted that comment, since it was guest, but it's the principle of things.)**

 **Now, for the reviews' response:**

 **MoonShadowPup: Nope, this is strict Hermes/Percy fic. I might write a Jercy one-shot in the future (if I survived Zeus/Percy I can do that one too!), but not here. He just has a crush on her.**

 **Arianna Le Fay: the answer up above.**

 **Alis-volat-propriis97: I feel ya :D But sowwy! One pairing only!**

 **Cynder2013: Noooo! I like Jason! He'll be okay, no worries!**

 **Shadowing: Oh, you can bet on that! Hera's in for a rough ride once Poseidon and Hermes get ahold of her...**

 **Guest 1: Someone asked for Austin incident retell? Look below. ;D**

 **JustMyOpinion74: Solved that problem, don't worry. Created another one, though... but that one is more for gods than demigods.**

 **GuardianXAngel: *smirks* You will have to wait, my dear. But I can promise it will happen at one point.**

 **Guest 2: I did say in You're family, aren't you? that Sephie will have her happy ever after... after I drag her through as many messes I can get away with. ;) Evil, I know.**

 **To everyone else (25 people in total) who showered me with positive feedback and demands to update: thank you, and chill a bit, peeps! :) I do have RL, you know?**

 **Now, let's see how Hermes is handling Sephie's disappearance...**

* * *

Two months. Two months of being stuck on Olympus with colossal migraines and no news about Sephie, and with his equally irritable family.

Hermes was ready to tear someone's head off, and Mercury agreed.

They still did most of their duties as messengers, so they didn't suffer from chronic boredom, but the unease that spread through Olympus and slithered into the gods' bloodstream did not bypass Maia's son. Hera/Juno was missing, Sephie disappeared the night after their date in San Francisco, and now Jason Grace appeared with no memories except Sephie's face?

This had immortal fingerprints all over it. The only questions remaining were who would do it, and why. Hermes had his suspicions, but until he could gather any evidence, he will keep mum.

"Son," strong male voice called after him, and the Messenger God sighed and turned.

"Yes, Father?"

Mercury switched with Hermes once they caught the glance of the King of Olympus, who was in his Jupiter form. Greek and Roman aspects did not communicate, point.

"I hope I do not need to remind that recall order also applies to you," Jupiter said with a stern look in his eyes.

"Of course not, Father," Mercury sharply nodded, standing at ready. "I only perform my duties when immortals ask for them."

"Good," Jupiter sighed, looking in the distance. "I am sorry for the doubt – I just caught my older brothers trying to sneak off to find Persephone Jackson."

Hermes gasped in the back of Mercury's mind, and Mercury had a hard time containing his own shock. Pluto and Neptune had never worked together, and certainly not over a _half-blood_. The girl was even more dangerous than Mercury had realized – she could both unite the Olympians and tear them apart without even trying!

"Apology is not necessary, Father. Do you have a need of me?"

Jupiter frowned at the question.

"As a matter of fact, I do. Will you release my son from the promise you got out of him about the girl? He will not be able to function in Greek Camp otherwise."

Mercury grimaced at the memory of that promise. It would've been a good thing had Jason remained with Romans, but now it became a hassle and a potential danger. Damn whoever dropped the boy near Greeks!

"I will," he said through gritted teeth. "But I need your permission to leave Olympus to safely release him."

The King stood there for a moment, eyes closed and toying with the Master Bolt demigoddess returned years ago.

"Very well. However, if I hear about any detours…" Jupiter left the sentence hanging in the midair and flashed away.

 _Uncle P is right – Dad is a drama queen,_ Hermes muttered from the back of his mind. _Let me take over?_

"No," Mercury declined. "We're talking with a child of Rome."

 _In the camp filled with Greeks?_ Hermes growled. _Do you want Father to do what he did to Hera after the Golden Net incident?_

Mercury shuddered as he remembered his stepmother's punishment. No, he was not eager to be hung from the axis of the sky by golden chains on his hands. He wasn't crazy enough.

 _Okay,_ he grumbled as he let his Greek aspect take over and run off at the speed of sound to Camp Half-Blood. _But you heard Father!_

 _If I wanted to search for Sephie,_ Hermes snarked, _I wouldn't be nearly so obvious._

* * *

"Lord Hermes!" Chiron nearly dropped his bow as Hermes flashed into the Great House.

"Hey Chiron," the god greeted cheerfully. "I have a missive from Lord Zeus – can you get me Jason Grace?"

"The boy is in Cabin 15," Chiron informed the god. "I can go and fetch him."

"Please," the god smiled. "And do not let anyone in after he comes in until I open the door – _no one._ "

"Yes, my Lord," Chiron bowed from his knees and trotted outside in search for the wayward son of Jupiter.

Hermes used that time to grab himself a seat and relax for a bit: his soles were starting to burn from the running he had been doing in the last month and half. Honestly, it was not truly necessary for him and Mercury to come; they just felt so stifled in Olympus, Mercury blurted out that white lie to Jupiter.

Well, whatever gets them to kick back a bit and rest the legs, since they were not allowed to search for Hermes' lover.

 _You're very attached to her,_ Mercury noted.

 _Don't tell me you don't feel anything for her,_ Hermes retorted.

 _That wasn't the point of my remark,_ Mercury said with a put-upon sigh.

 _I don't need a lecture from a brat who never questions his orders,_ Hermes snapped with a bit more fire than he wanted. _She's my lover, and we've done worse to those that tried to take them away from us._

 _She's not_ _just_ _your lover,_ Mercury shook his head. _Destroying Apollo's cabin because of a foolish child –_

"Was necessary," Hermes spoke aloud, gritting his teeth as the memory resurfaced from the depths where he locked it along with Luke's death.

 _The sense of revelry after the end of second Titanomachy did not fade after a day, or a week. It stretched all the way to the beginning of September, when most of the campers still attending school had to say goodbye and return to their mortal homes. Unwilling to just let them leave without a bang, Chiron and Dionysus organized a final party – for which Dionysus even got permission from Zeus to make vine – and gods descended to mingle with their children and have some fun in the middle of the restorations. Admittedly, Poseidon had to threaten Athena with flooding of her library and Sephie to hide Annabeth's renovation plans until mother and daughter conceded the fight and joined the party, but that was of less importance._

 _This was also Hermes and Sephie's first date, sort of. They had talked at length often in the past year and went for a coffee more times than Hermes wanted to count, but this was special. This was them being out together after declaring themselves a couple. He had already seen Aphrodite wink at them from the corner of his eyes, and there was no escaping a pointed glare from Poseidon drilling a hole between his shoulder blades._

 _All in all, though, he was having fun, and Sephie looked the same._

 _"I can't believe it's been almost three weeks," daughter of Poseidon said as they sat on the dock, holding hands and watching the sun sink below the sea. "I keep expecting to wake up and realize we're still at war."_

 _"I understand," Hermes nodded. "I felt the same after Gigantomachy."_

 _"Gigantomachy?" Sephie turned, eyes shining with curiosity. "I feel like I should know this…"_

 _"In short, Mother Earth doesn't like us," Hermes snorted, gripping Sephie's hand tighter. The new Great Prophecy unsettled Olympus, since it coincided too much with Roman Prophecy of Seven, and the rumors floating around hinted at something old awakening – something like Giants. "So she sent another set of her children, Giants – Tartarus', not Ouranos' – to depose us and take reins of the world. The thing was, the Giants can't be killed solely by a god or mortal, it has to be the two working together."_

 _"Oh right!" Sephie's features cleared of confusion. "The stories of Heracles mention that. The Giants were created to be your counterparts, right?"_

 _"Yes," Hermes shuddered as he recalled facing his own counterpart, Hippolytus. He managed to kill him by using his uncle's Helm of Darkness, but the sheer wrongness of Hippolytus' presence still haunted him sometimes._

 _"Hey," Sephie placed her head on his shoulder. "It's all over. It'll be better."_

 _"You are amazing," Hermes smiled and hugged Sephie. "How can you still hope after everything?"_

 _"Because I'd have nothing to live for," Sephie shrugged, blushing under the adoration Hermes showered her with. "Could you grab me a bit of BBQ, please? I'm a bit hungry."_

 _The rumble of her stomach corroborated her story, and Hermes chuckled, dodging a playful swat._

 _"Yes, princess."_

 _"Don't call me that!" Sephie complaint reached Hermes as he sped off to the buffet table, only causing him to laugh even more. Sephie could be so silly sometimes!_

 _"She likes ribs and marshmallows, but hates fish with burning passion," came an amused voice from behind him, and Hermes spun around in surprise._

 _"Hello, little sister," Hermes greeted Thalia Grace, who was standing behind him and drinking soda. "What do you -?"_

 _"I'm just saying," Hunt's Lieutenant shrugged, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear, and reached for a stick with marshmallows. "You don't want to piss her off by giving her fish. I don't want to end up wet when she blows up."_

 _"Ah." Hermes was still confused but decided not to look too deeply into this. If she wanted to give him advice on Sephie, he will take it at face value. "Thank you."_

 _"No problem," Thalia shrugged. "Now hurry up – you're not the only guy around here who likes Sephie a bit too much and wants to act on it."_

 _Something awoke inside Hermes at the sound of that. He had never had scandalous love affairs or had a bad reputation when in love like his father and siblings; however, jealousy was not an unknown feeling for him. Being a thief himself, he hated even more than most when someone tried to steal something from him._

 _All but flying over the grassy terrain to the lake's dock, he found a blonde boy talking with Sephie, who had stood up and crossed her arms. As crimson colored his vision, Hermes still managed a semblance of rationality to hide, listen in and figure out why Thalia implied the boy was his rival._

 _"…none of your business, Austin," Sephie said with a scowl on her face. "I can date whomever I want."_

 _"C'mon Sephie!" Austin looked a bit drunk, Hermes noted, as he swayed in his place before taking a step forward. He also looked a lot like Luke when he was younger. "Dating a god? That's just masochistic. He'll leave you sooner or later – you're still mortal, after all."_

 _Now that was low. Hermes knew why Sephie refused immortality, and to see it treated so callously by a demigod Sephie helped only fueled his anger._

 _"So what?" Sephie's eyes were blazing, water sloshing around the edges of the lake in response to her agitation. "I love Hermes. Deal with it."_

 _"I'm just saying," Austin took another step forward, prompting Sephie to take a step back. "You liked Luke, didn't you? Everyone thought you would end up together one day. Isn't dating his dad, like, dating Luke?"_

 _For the first time, Sephie's eyes watered, and Hermes nearly stepped out of his hideout behind one of trees. Didn't the idiot boy realize how much talking about Luke hurt Sephie?_

 _"Stop it, Austin," she whispered, her voice breaking._

 _That was the last straw for Hermes. He strode out and all but flashed behind Austin, slamming his palm on the demigod's shoulder. Austin lost coordination, adding in on the theory he was drunk, and collapsed into a heap at Hermes' feet._

 _"Hermes?" Sephie asked, but the god was more focused on the offending demigod. He could not see from the back, but Hermes now realized he must've been one of Apollo's children – blue eyes, blonde hair and high cheekbones were instant giveaways._

 _"Haven't you heard," the god murmured as his staff materialized in his hand, George and Martha hissing in the background, "that making someone's girl cry is not a healthy thing to do?" He let his aura snake around him, not quite assuming his immortal form, but not pretending to be mortal either._

 ** _Kill him, Hermesss!_** _George demanded_

 ** _He made Sssephie sssad,_** _Martha added._ _ **No one isss allowed to do that.**_

 _"Agreed," Hermes said quietly and raised the staff._

 _"NO!"_

 _Sephie flung herself at Hermes, jumping over Austin's slumped form and slamming directly into Hermes' outstretched arm, redirecting the blast meant for Austin to Cabin Seven. Hermes, in shock, had to catch Sephie before she fell of the dock into the lake, and the party quieted as the gods and demigods started looking for the reason why Cabin Seven looked a pile of golden rubbish._

"I had a very good reason," Hermes continued the argument with Mercury, who only sighed and refused to comment.

In that moment, a knock sounded through the Great House, and Hermes settled in.

"Come in!"

Jason Grace shuffled in, looking so much like his father and behaving almost nothing like him. There were traces of what he used to be in the suspicious look in his eyes, and hand twitching towards the pocket he kept his sword (Mercury and Hermes both approved), but if you didn't know, you would've never thought Defeater of Krios and this boy were the same person.

Now, time for some switcharoo.

" _Ave_ , Jason Grace," Mercury greeted the Roman.

" _Ave, Dominus Mercurius,_ " the boy replied, falling to his knee. It appeared some things were ingrained too deeply to be fully forgotten.

"Rise boy." Jason obeyed without a second of hesitation. "Your father sent me to release you from the promise you made about Persephone Jackson."

Son of Jupiter started a bit at that, a hopeful glint entering his eyes. "Does that mean I'll remember more?"

"I do not know," Mercury said bluntly, dashing boy's hopes. "With Juno missing and your father's orders of non-interference, I cannot tell you what happened to your memories." He and Hermes had a hunch, though, and the release would serve as a perfect cover to confirm it or disprove it.

"Juno's missing?" Jason tore the god out of his musings, sounding horrified.

"Yes," the messenger nodded sharply. "Now come here, boy. My time here is limited."

Jason carefully approached, watching every movement Mercury made. When he was about a foot away from the seat, he stopped, wavering.

"Closer," Mercury grunted. "I need to touch you."

Jason's eyes widened, but complied, walking up to the god and kneeling so Mercury could simply extend his hand and lay it on his head.

" _Et nunc absolvo vos_ _vestra fidem_ , Jason Grace, _Iovis fillius._ "

Jason's eyes clouded over, his mind processing the release, allowing Mercury to sneak a peek at his half-brother's memories.

 _Hera,_ Hermes growled. _She stole his memories!_

 _That means…,_ Mercury could not speak it properly, too horrified at the implications. Had his stepmother gone _insane_?

 _Leader for leader,_ Hermes voiced the thought. _The merger. Father needs to know._

 _He will._

* * *

"Father, call the council session," Hermes strode into the Throne Room, the snakes on his staff silent. "This is important."

"Important how?" Zeus asked, supporting his head with an arm planted on his throne's armrest. "It's a bad moment for -"

"I know why Jason Grace is at Camp Half-Blood."

That caught King's attention, and he lifted his head, eyes clear for the first time in past month.

"Very well." Zeus lifted his Master Bolt, letting the thunder and lightning act as signal. There was no way any of the Olympians could ignore the signal: even Hades heard these calls in the Underworld.

One by one, Olympians flashed into their seats, Hermes opting not to sit until he delivered the information he had. After the last immortal flashed in – Athena, surprisingly enough – Zeus sealed the doors, ignoring his wife's empty seat, and looked expectantly at his son.

"Jason Grace was sent to Camp Half-Blood by Hera," Hermes cut straight to the chase. "The Mist clinging to him and the signature in Jason's mind was definitely hers."

"What?" Ares was the first one to gather his wits. "Mother caused this?"

"Why would she do that?" Hades asked, stunned, as the chatter picked up. "That's not like her -"

"How did you realize that, son?" Zeus silenced everyone.

"My Roman aspect forced a promise out of him never to speak of Sephie Jackson," Hermes revealed. "I believe he didn't want any more interaction between the two camps. Since it created problems in current situation, he was sent to rectify it." He wisely did not name names, afraid of causing another schizophrenic episode.

"It still doesn't explain why!" Ares exploded, rising from his throne. "Why would she do something that would incapacitate us all, _her_ included?"

"Prophecy," Athena muttered, sounding horrified. "Leader for leader. Hera is trying to manipulate the Prophecy of Seven."

"Manipulate it?" Hephaestus asked with a frown. "I don't see -"

"'Foes bear arms to the Doors of Death'," Apollo quoted, somber. "The children of both of our aspects will have to work together."

"But that's risky!" Aphrodite chimed in, getting a few surprised looks. "Last time we tried to unite them -"

"American Civil War erupted," Dionysus yawned, but his purple eyes were alert. The headaches Olympians had now were child's play compared to then, and no one wanted a repeat.

"Hera's playing with fire," Demeter said quietly. "This could easily backfire."

"But at least we know one thing," Hermes tried to sound upbeat. "We know exactly where Sephie Jackson will be or already is."

"Somewhere around San Francisco," Poseidon muttered, rising. " I'll -"

"You will _nothing_ , _adelfos_ ," Zeus hissed at the Sea Lord. "The recall order is still in full effect, for everyone! Until our numbers are back to what they should be, we are vulnerable!"

The council quieted, awaiting Poseidon's decision.

"Understood, brother," Poseidon finally nodded, resentment visible in his face.

"Then the meeting is adjourned."

Zeus was the first one to flash out, but the rest was slower to leave the room, eyes darting between Poseidon and Hermes, the two immobile ones. Finally, the only occupants in the room were Hermes, Poseidon, Hades and Hestia.

"Uncle?"

"I don't like the fact you're dating my daughter," Poseidon said suddenly. "But I cannot deny you're the only one of us who managed to find a lead on her."

Hermes tried not to preen and shifted on his feet.

"She's important to us all," Hestia murmured, watching Pandora's _pithos_ , Sephie's gift to her, glow in her hearth. "She could the one to unite our split personalities."

"Or the one to destroy us simply by being in the wrong place at the wrong time," Hades added, rising from his seat. "Still, it's pointless to talk about future while we're still one member short of full council. We should concentrate on keeping Sephie as safe as we can and finding Hera."

"Yes," Poseidon nodded. "You will listen for more clues, Hermes?"

"Of course," the Messenger God promised. "I'll tell you the moment I have something concrete."

"Send me and Hestia a message as well, nephew," Hades demanded. "Keep us informed."

"Yes." What were two more messages sent? Besides, Hades and Hestia liked his Sephie since she was a mere child, framed for stealing the Master Bolt. They would have Hermes' head if he failed to keep them in the loop.

Now, the only thing he could do was wait, and listen. With Sephie's brand of luck, he'll hear something very soon.


	3. The Children of Destruction

**It's 2 AM in my time zone, but who the Hades cares. It's my younger twin siblings' birthday, and in their honor (and in celebration of the awesomeness called PJO Musical, seriously, go check it out! The amount of Persassy in it should be illegal) this chapter was born!**

 **I'll admit - I'm not an enormous fan of HoO. In fact, the only books I remember everything that happened were Mark of Athena and Son of Neptune. So, I glossed over some of the adventures Leo, Jason and Piper went through. I hope you'll forgive me for it.**

 **Reviews time! (Please, if you're guest-reviewing, write some type of name for me to answer!)**

 **DannyPhantom619: You're so, so right.**

 **Guest 1: Shhh, don't let the Air-Head King hear you! (Even though we agree on that one.)**

 **Guest 2: No problemo! And I read the madrigal-in-training's works, but only after you told me about it. I admit, our humanization of the gods does get eerily similar... *shudders* But they have an awesome name! I like 39 clues as well.**

 **Aisha Saphira: Aww, I'm honored! Here you go - a brand new chappie!**

 **Guest 3: Thank you for the compliment! About the whole Elder Olympians liking Sephie... I hinted it in this chapter, but the gods do still like her - it's just that under Zeus' orders, they can't search for her directly. However... their kids and the Hunters can. ;) Give it a bit of time, and you'll see their perspectives on the whole thing.**

 **Now, I'm tuning out! Yours in demigodishness and all that...**

 **Leo's time to shine!**

* * *

Leo Valdez was both confused and excited.

The whole Greek Gods are real business had not completely settled in his mind, and he just volunteered for a freaking _quest,_ but he had Jason and Piper. Well, sort of. Piper was still the same Piper he had always known, even with the gorgeous dress and makeup from her mum's makeover.

Jase, on the other hand… not so much.

Oh, it wasn't like he suddenly became Hulk, instead of staying Dr. Banner – only recognizable because you saw him switch from science nerd to green rage monster. It was more like seeing Clark Kent and then being told he's a freaking Superman; kinda fitting within the context, you know, with the whole flying thing and blue and blonde scheme he had going –

Okay, off the track, but hey, he had ADHD.

Jason looked so uncomfortable with the campers, with him, Piper, everyone. Also, he claimed he couldn't remember anything, and to be honest, it hurt. Jason was his best bud; Jason _chose_ to hang out with Leo and Piper. He could've been friends with anyone: he had that type of personality, all open and nice. Leo had done his damnedest to prove to the other boy had not mistaken with his choice, and seeing it all erased, wiped clean as if it never existed?

That hurt like hell.

Or Hades. That seemed to be the lingo around his new home.

"Ready for the quest, Valdez?" Nyssa asked, hobbling up to him.

"Sure," he bluffed, tossing on a big smile, but it did not fool his half-sister.

"Don't lie to me, Valdez," she sighed. "Beckendorf looked the same way before he went on a mission that killed him. You're scared."

"Well, I guess," the Latino mumbled. "So, the guy died on a mission?"

"Yes," Nyssa sighed, bowing her head. "He and Sephie Jackson went to blow up the _Princess Andromeda_ , Kronos' ship. Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, was supposed to join him, but his father trapped him in Underworld, so he couldn't be their getaway if something went wrong."

Nyssa did not finish the tale, but Leo could easily fill it in. Something went wrong, Beckendorf and Sephie (and man, she was smoking hot! Not literally – she was daughter of Poseidon! – but still. He wasn't _loca_ enough to tangle with the guy who blasted a cabin because some idiot flirted with the girl, though. Not worth it, man.) got trapped, Beckendorf died.

"Did they blow the ship, at least?"

"They did," Nyssa stood up. "Jackson never forgave herself for it. Everyone was scared she'd do something bad to herself for a while."

Leo gulped, revising the image of the girl. Okay, she was hot, dating a god, and a legend – but she cared a lot.

"Were they close?"

"Nah," Nyssa shook her head. "No more than most cabin heads are. But she got out of it in time to defend Olympus. Maybe all those stories about central hearth's healing powers are true."

"Healing powers?" That would be useful, Leo thought as he bolted up. He'll need every scrap of healing power before chasing after that dragon.

"The story goes, if you spend enough time around the hearth, you'll heal from any ailments," Nyssa shrugged. "Dunno if it's true, but Jackson did look better. Maybe you should check it out, Valdez."

"I will," Leo grinned, picking up the backpack Harley had given him for the quest. "Thanks Nyssa!"

He heard what could've been 'You're welcome', but he had already bolted from Cabin Nine and made a beeline for the hearth. The crackling fire did not make him nervous, for once, as he came close enough to sit by it. It did the exact opposite; it calmed him down and made him think of happier days.

"Hello, Leonidas Valdez," a soft, girlish voice greeted him.

"Yaah!" Leo jumped up a foot. "Who- what -?"

"Calm down, young hero," the voice chuckled, and Leo finally spotted the owner. It was an eight-year-old girl, with eyes the color of flames and dressed in unassuming brown dress that matched her hair. She was holding a poker and had a soft smile that reminded Leo of his mother Esperanza.

"Uh, um, who're you, Miss? I-I didn't see you before, I'm sorry if I'm being a bother, I'll go -" Leo was painfully aware he was rambling, but the girl just shook her head.

"It's fine, young hero. Very few people see me, and every fewer seek my help of their own volition." She motioned for the Latino to sit. "Your father, for example, used to do that when he was younger. He was even more self-conscious of his imperfect looks than he is nowadays."

Leo obeyed, suddenly very interested. He had already heard Hephaestus was not the prettiest of gods, but to hear he was unsure of himself? Well, Leo had always wanted to know more about his papa.

"You look surprised," the girl smiled. "Yes, even the gods have their moments of weakness, their own little insecurities and doubts. I am here to help them as much as I can – the hearth is the heart of the home, and the heart always listens."

Leo tilted his head. "Uh, I don't want to be rude, but I can't remember your name."

The girl laughed, and the fire crackled in tandem with the sound.

"I suppose you wouldn't. My name is Hestia, the oldest of the children of Kronos and Rhea, and guardian of the hearth."

"Uh, so, you're my…" Leo tried to recall everything he knew of the Greek Mythology. " _Tía abuela?_ "

"I am," Hestia nodded, prodding the coals with the poker. "Does it surprise you?"

"A bit," the son of Hephaestus admitted. "I mean, you're…"

"A child?" Hestia's eyes were glittering. "We are gods, Leonidas. We change shape to suit our needs, and who represents the purity of home but a child?"

"Please, can you call me Leo?" He winced at his full name before registering the rest of the sentence. "So, you stay a child to be more, ah, approachable I guess?"

"Well put," Hestia poked the coals again. "You and Persephone Jackson do seem to like hiding your intelligence. One might say you're mirrors of each other in that and other matters."

"Whoa, whoa." Not that the comparison wasn't flattering, because being compared to a gorgeous chick and _the_ Heroine around here? That was awesome, but Hestia had to be yanking his chain. "Let's not exaggerate, _tía abuela._ Not that it's not nice to be compared to her -"

"I meant every word I said," Hestia cut him off serenely. "There are only five people in the world that truly know my niece: her mother Sally, her father Poseidon, me, my brother Hades, and her former lover Luke Castellan, although Hermes is on his way to become the sixth. Believe me when I say you two are quite similar."

That hit a sore spot.

"How can she be even a fraction of a fuck-up that I am?" Leo asked, the tears pricking him at the corner of his eyes. "I killed my mum with my fire, got called a devil by Aunt Rosa, and I'm still lying to all my friends about my powers! How can we be similar?!"

"Oh Leo," Hestia appeared at his side, laying a comforting hand on his fisted ones. "I truly hope you will meet her soon: I cannot tell you everything she had gone through. However, you should know this: her mere existence was, until very recently, a danger to Olympus. She was an omen of ill luck, the child that would bring about our death and destruction. Even her name, Persephone, was the signal – it means _the destroyer of light._ She was an outcast no one sane wanted to come close to for a while."

Leo closed his eyes. Why, oh why did that sound familiar? Oh right, he had gone through that at every school when they heard about his mama's death.

Maybe _tía abuela_ was onto something.

"Just like you, she came here often to confide in me," Hestia murmured. "She needed a shoulder to cry on, just like you do."

"Mama died years ago," Leo shook his head. He should've gotten over it.

"Yet you never truly allowed yourself to grieve." Hestia sounded sympathetic. "Let it out, Leo Valdez. It was not your fault. You simply tried to defend your mother – it was not your fault."

And Leo let it out – he hid his face in his palms, sobbing next to the Goddess of Hearth until he couldn't cry anymore.

* * *

The hearth may have not given him healing he expected it to, but Leo could not deny he felt lighter, more optimistic as he set off on his quest. Even the three-day deadline did not scare him as much! He had Festus the dragon, and his kickass friends Jason and Piper at his side: what else did he need?

Okay, a girlfriend would be nice, but that could wait – that ice-cold girl Khione managed to put him off the whole finding-your-soulmate spiel for a little while. He had no intention of being an icicle for the next hundred years, thank you very much! He wasn't Captain America!

That being said, he couldn't believe how he managed to fall for Medea's trick of charmspeak. He had already heard Piper use it on others, he should've recognized it! But it all ended relatively okay – they got the _ventus_ for Aeolus, Festus came and helped them blow up Medea's mall, and he finally got the confirmation his mama's death wasn't his fault.

When combined with his talk with Hestia, it made the dream visit from his papa a bit less awkward.

"You seem a lot calmer than I would expect. Less accusatory," Hephaestus noted, fiddling with the scraps, just like Leo did when he was nervous.

"Well, I had a chat with _tía abuela_ Hestia," Leo shrugged, inspecting the room they were in. It looked more like a workshop than the forge he had expected, but it was still very, very interesting. "She set me straight on some things."

"Ah, aunt Hestia," Leo spotted a glimmer in the god's dark eyes. "She does have that effect on everyone in our mismatched family."

"Yeah," Leo grinned, spying a sketch of a diadem, a belt and a set of brooches on the desk, and pointed at it. "What's that? It looks fancy."

"What?" Hephaestus looked in the direction of Leo's finger, and laughed. "Oh, that! Don't tell anyone you saw that, alright? Zeus commissioned it from me without telling me who it's for and forbade me from mentioning I'm making it to anyone," here the god rolled his eyes. "Like I could not guess the intended receiver. He honestly thinks we Olympians are either stupid or blind when it comes to her."

Leo's attention was piqued, and he leaned forward to see the sketch better, but Hephaestus was quicker, flipping it over.

"Oh no," Hephaestus shook his head, tilting his head as the image of the workshop frizzled at the edges. "I'm not going to break my promise directly. Besides, I'm sensing Zeus interfering. Wake up, boy, and don't forget – everything can be reused."

And Leo woke up to Festus crashing to the ground, and every thought about the strange sketches were forgotten, at least temporarily – he had other things to worry about.

Things like Festus breaking up, and Midas turning him into golden statue.

* * *

"Whew," Leo wiped the sweat off his forehead. "I seriously thought we were goners for a sec there with those werewolves. Your sis is awesome, Jase."

"Thanks," Jason stared at the campfire, a familiar light in his eyes. Leo had seen that light before, and he instinctively leaned forward.

"Come on, Jase. You have that _I'm thinking too hard_ look. Spill it!"

Jason flinched, eyes wide, before the light reappeared.

"Do you think…" he paused, before plowing on. "Do you think Piper really likes me? Even after the whole Mist thing?"

Leo cracked up.

"Like you? Dude, she's so hung up over you, it's not even funny! And that look in her eyes, when you mentioned Sephie Jackson? She has it bad, Superman."

Jason shifted in his seat.

"It's just… It feels a bit forced, you know?" he told his best friend. "Like Hera wanted me to fall in love with her, and her to fall in love with me. I don't trust myself. Is Jason from my lost memories the same Jason you and Piper see and like?"

Leo frowned. It was a good question. Which Jason was the real one? Thalia, his own sister, could not vouch for him, and the only person that could clarify the mess, Sephie Jackson, was missing.

"I don't know, dude, but I think you're thinking too hard. Just let things happen, yeah? We'll tell you if you start behaving all weird."

"Thanks, Leo," Jason looked relieved. "You're the best friend I could ask for."

"Hey, that's I'm here for!" Leo covered it with a grin and jolly tone, but he felt his heart warm up – metaphorically, not in that way, yeesh! He wasn't about to make a barbecue of himself! – at the words. He was someone's best friend.

It was a nice thing to hear – particularly since Jason had to mean it, with his memory still lost and whatnot.

"Come here, you two," Thalia called from the tent. "The last thing you need is to catch hypothermia on a quest. Oh, I'm so glad I spent most of my winter-time quest in the train…"

Leo and Jason walked to her, entering the tent that literally appeared out of nowhere. How did that other Hunter – Phoebe? – manage to set it up, patch Piper up and get fire in the fourth gear in the five minutes? That was seriously cool!

"Your winter-time quest?" Jason asked, and yeah, thanks for the reminder, Jason. Leo also wanted to know, but his ADHD distracted him, again.

"Yes." Thalia looked a bit lost in the memories. "It was the quest that helped me make a decision to become a Hunter."

"A good decision, Thalia," Phoebe nodded at her lieutenant. "I would've been chosen as Zoe's successor, and I have no wish for such a position. I enjoy hunting freely under Milady's protection too much."

"Zoe?" Piper asked, finally losing the traces of blue tinge around her lips.

"The last lieutenant of the Hunt, daughter of Atlas and Pleione," Thalia pointed to the sky. "She died saving Lady Artemis from her father, and she cast Zoe into the stars as a reward."

"The perfect reward for over three millennia of service," Phoebe sounded happy. "And a fitting end."

"Agreed," Thalia smiled. "That quest, ironically, also resulted in me finding out you were alive, Jason."

"Really?" Jason inched forward; everyone was listening closely, including Phoebe and Coach Hedge.

"M-hmm. Sephie was a hostage at Mount Othrys at the time. Grandfather," the word was spat out with disgust, "did something to her, and her soul-body link became unstable. Uncles and Apollo gave their best to fix it, but in the end, only the bastard who created the mess could fix it. I wanted to murder her for even suggesting the idea." Thalia shook her head. "But she swore up and down she could get out of the whole thing perfectly fine – and she did, the lucky girl. She only got tossed into a boulder once on Othrys."

"Tossed into a boulder _only once?_ " Leo was sure his voice had managed to reach falsetto. Phoebe looked pissed off, Jason was pale, and Piper's eyes were wide.

"She was on Kronos' _kill slowly and violently_ list for over three years, and the rumor is, he wanted to 'make her his Queen' at some point," Thalia snorted. "That was perfectly fine in comparison. Anyway, as she was escaping, she ran into Jason floating over the entrance to Mount Othrys and asked him for his name. That's how I knew you were still alive somewhere."

Jason chewed on his lip, digesting the information.

"'Make her his Queen'?" Phoebe repeated, her brown eyes gaining a murderous glint, and Leo leaned from the girl. Nope, he wasn't coming anywhere near that girl. "Is that a direct quote?"

"I'm not sure, but I think it is," Thalia raised her hands. "Nico told me, who heard it from his father, who probably heard it directly from Sephie. Uncle Hades and Sephie are pretty close for a demigod and a god."

"I see." Now Phoebe was growling, and Coach clutched his stick – branch, whatever that thing was – tighter as everyone backed away from the Hunter. "Back in his days, that would mean rape her, then force her to marry him because no one would want 'used goods'."

Oh, that was _disgusting._ Leo felt queasy at the explanation.

"Are gods – Did the gods -" Piper looked a bit green.

"Not nowadays," Phoebe shook her head, still looking to murder the already dead guy. Honestly, Leo wanted to join in on the party. "This new era abolished many of those society laws."

Well, that wasn't exactly a comforting thought. So, the gods used to be as bad as Titans?

Why in the universe did Sephie Jackson – heck, anyone – fight for the gods?

"Because those cupcakes are even worse," Hedge piped in, and Leo blinked. Did he say it out loud? "Respecting the nature, bah! They just wanted to rule over humans again."

"Also, the gods have changed," Thalia said, patting Jason's shoulder. "They take a long time, but they can change. They pay a lot more attention to humans. Rape is basically non-existent. They grew up."

"Well, that's nice to know and all, but we have to go," Hedge got up. "Didn't you cupcakes say you have a deadline?"

"Winter solstice," Jason bolted up. "Right. We have to get to Aeolus' palace."

"Oh, that's no problem, I'll take you there," Thalia said with a smirk. "Pack up."


	4. Deliberate actions (and one scared God)

**Hoo, boy. This one just didn't want to cooperate with me when I was writing it, and honestly, I think about rewriting it totally. And then I read You're family, aren't you? again, and managed to fix this, so... here you go!**

 **Review time:**

 **One thing before we start - I missed a couple of reviews before, because they were posted on first chapter, so I'm gonna answer those too at the end of this block.**

 **Shadowing: Uh, you'll have to deal with only one more Sephie-less chapter - this one. Next chapter we'll switch to the West Coast and see what has been happening there.**

 **Guest 1: Aww, thanks! And sorry for a bit of misunderstanding, but it's A-OK now. As for the name... I've never gotten a request like that before, I'll be frank. However, I don't mind throwing out names - I do write original stories as well as fanfiction. What kind of name would you like? 'Real world'-like, totally made up or a mix like me?**

 **Guest 2: *smirks* I can't wait, either. Particularly with how I'm planning to make them meet...**

 **From previous chapters:**

 **CTRI: Oh, that's quite a compliment! I'm trying to keep Sephie as close to Percy while still making her an independent character, and I'm glad you feel like I succeded!**

 **Stupiditt: ...Uh, isn't that kind of counter-productive? :O I mean, please don't: I don't want to meet Hades just yet. Who knows what kind of opinion he'd have on this and previous fanfic...**

 **Guest 3: PLEASE DON'T! Seriously, people, chill out... :D**

 **Now, let's get back to the final chapters of Lost Hero... Son (or, should I say, Daughter) of Neptune coming soon!**

 **Zeus-time!**

 **(Fair warning: I had way too much fun with the Air-Head's personality, so I accept every criticism about his OOC behavior.)**

* * *

Switching between the two forms had never been so exhausting.

Okay, Zeus was lying to himself. Every time Rome and Greece clashed, the switches became more difficult to manage as he and Jupiter fought for dominance, giving him headaches comparable to the one he had before Athena jumped out of his head.

This time, however, he was also exhausted from the war with his father: everyone on Olympus were still nursing some level of wounds from the final fight. Fight with Typhoon drained the King of Olympus to the point where he was forced to take afternoon naps to restore his energy, and he was unable to control his children and siblings as thoroughly as he used to.

Hera's disappearance was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back: he needed to close Olympus and keep them on a short leash.

Unfortunately, his siblings made it their job to make him miserable, and all because of that _half-blood girl_.

"Poseidon!" he barked, spotting Poseidon sitting near the edge of Olympus.

"Yes, brother?" the sea god asked, sounding almost as tired as Zeus.

"What are you doing?" Zeus marched up to his brother, only then spotting a small orb in Poseidon's hands. "And what's that?"

"I'm looking," was Poseidon's noncommittal answer, a grimace carving its way on his face. "Otherwise I'd go insane. I'm not used to being chained to one place like you, Zeus."

Zeus felt a little pang of guilt: his siblings had never coped well with imprisonment after the stint inside their father's stomach, and Poseidon was even worse than most. His domain demanded movement, constant change, and out of all six of them, he was the fastest to adapt whenever Olympus shifted. This _was_ cruel.

"I cannot let grandmother get a chance to snatch another one of us and weaken the Council," he spoke in lieu of apology, and Poseidon nodded in acceptance. "Besides, you still haven't told me what that is."

"This?" Poseidon lifted the murky glass orb. "This is the reason I know every gossip on Olympus the moment it happens, and what exactly is happening in both camps."

Here, the Sea King's form blurred for a second, and Zeus gritted his teeth, pushing Jupiter down.

"By Father, I hate him," Poseidon growled after his form stabilized again. "Him and Romans both. What were they thinking… anyway. This allows me to follow anyone on the surface – given that there is no other interference from higher entities."

And true to his word, Zeus spotted a shaky image of his daughter surrounded by the other Hunters and their wolves near –

"Wolf House?"

Poseidon nodded.

"It's the only image I get whenever I try to seek out Hera. Thalia came down there about an hour ago, and her brother is currently in Aeolus' palace. I believe grandmother doesn't want me to see too much of her plans."

Zeus bit his lip, his pride and desire for knowledge warring within him. Should he ask his brother to keep an eye on Gaia's movements, or on his children? Well, his and Jupiter's, he amended quickly in his head before the Roman aspect could protest and worsen his headache. Or should he just demand the truth about the orb's origins and punish his brother for defying him - again?

"The Death is bound," Poseidon continued talking, unaware of his brother's turmoil, the image in the orb staying still. "I can't see Thanatos, so I'm guessing he's either in Alaska or on Tamalpais. The children - "

"Poseidon," Zeus cut him off. "How long have you had this?"

Poseidon blinked, before sagging down.

"Very long," he murmured. "Oceanus gave it to me after the first Titanomachy. I tried to keep a watch on the surface, but there are some places I simply cannot see. As in, I can't see them at all. Wolf House is currently one of them, that's why I've been watching it."

Zeus had to temp down his anger. This little secret of Poseidon's could've helped them in the previous wars!

"I cannot see Tamalpais, brother," the sea god spoke slowly, guessing correctly what was on his brother's mind and trying to soothe him. "I tried: believe me, I tried so many times to see what our Father was planning, but something – or someone – has been blocking my sight since the first fall of Othrys. I've never been able to see into the stronghold itself."

That managed to cool down Sky Lord's temper a little.

"You should've said something," Zeus didn't plan on sounding so accusatory, but he couldn't hide the hurt in his voice. Since when did the siblings keep secrets from each other? The children he could sort-of understand; the Prophecy hanging over their heads was enough to keep their mouths shut. But this? This silence had lasted for over five millennia!

"This is my domain, Zeus," Poseidon sounded amused, and Zeus huffed a little. "I'm sure you share little perks of controlling the sky with everyone."

"Of course not!" Zeus crossed his arms, glaring at his brother. "Show me my children again."

"Bossy," Poseidon poked a little but obliged, the image shimmering to show Jason facing off against a Giant.

"Is that Enceladus?" Zeus gaped a little, barely noticing two more demigods helping Jason before being batted away by the giant.

"Good thing Bird Brain isn't here, she'd go ballistic," Poseidon shook his head, grimacing. "If Enceladus is fully reformed, his brothers won't be far behind. I told you, brother: we have to open Olympus again."

"Not until our numbers are complete," Zeus refused to budge on the subject. "And especially not for that brat of yours."

"A brat you flirted with not three months ago," Poseidon returned the jab, and Zeus could not for the love of Olympus stop his cheeks from reddening. How did he find that out?! "She told me at the party – she was afraid Hermes would've confronted you and asked me to run interference just in case."

"Act like a cockblocking mother-hen, more like," Zeus grumbled at the remainder. "You didn't try to blast me. Why?"

"Brother," Poseidon sighed, chuckling, "you started flirting with _Hades_ the moment you rescued us out of our Father's stomach. It's your modus operandi. The only person you've never flirted with was Hestia, because despite everything you are not a pedophile, and your daughters. I _expected_ that to happen sooner or later. Besides, I doubt you meant anything with that."

Zeus had to bite his tongue before something slipped out. He _had_ meant something with it, although he had had no intention of sleeping with his niece. He liked keeping his cock intact, thank you very much!

 _Father, If I've ever done anything good, anything you approved of, help me now. I offer my own life—just save my friends!_

Jason's cry to Jupiter forced Zeus to close his eyes as his Roma aspect screamed at him to do something – anything!

"Brother?"

Zeus was in no state to answer, splitting his concentration between keeping Jupiter on the leash and sending a bolt to help his son. He will not see another Grace die if he could help it: Thalia and Beryl were more than enough.

The headache returned, but Poseidon was silent, allowing Zeus a few minutes of silence to figure things out.

"Oh," he heard Poseidon's murmur. "Brother, open your eyes. You need to see this!"

Zeus did not want to – his headache was back with vengeance – but the urgency in his brother's tone forced him to do so.

The orb was showing Wolf House again, and Zeus could not believe his eyes. The sun was setting – it appeared his few minutes were few hours. He was losing the track of time, which was not good. He could also see Artemis' Hunters and three orange-clad demigods facing off against Khione and Lycan and his pack right outside the Wolf House.

The worst part, however, was the cage peeking out of the ruins of the Lupa's home, with Hera half-buried in the earth, and the gigantic lump of mud that dared to call himself the next King next to the cage.

"Porphyrion," Zeus growled, hatred filling him at the sight of his counterpart. He dared to pull the same move again, by stealing his wife! Oh, how he wished he could simply blast him out of existence…

"Grandmother is pulling out all the stops," Poseidon grimaced before turning to face his brother. "If you decide to do the same as you did four years ago with Father, I swear I will punch you _adelfos_."

"No need," Zeus shook his head. "I've seen enough evidence to call for war council." The nail of pain suddenly burrowed itself into his head, wrenching a groan from his throat as he fought for dominance with Jupiter. "If we manage to stay in one form for more than an hour!"

"We will," Poseidon hissed through his teeth, sounding like he was in about as much pain as Zeus was. It was surprisingly discomforting. "We – _argh!_ – just need to watch Athena. She's useless when she's struggling."

Zeus wanted to snap at his brother for the casual dismissal of his favorite daughter, but unfortunately, he had to agree. Athena was an amazing strategist, but when she faced Minerva, she switched places with her stepmother in the amount of vitriol she spewed with total disregard of whom she was targeting.

"That does _not_ give you permission to start searching for your daughter," was Zeus' parting words as he rose from the edge and walked back to the Throne Room.

* * *

The Winter Solstice passed without too many incidents: the moment Zeus had called for the war council, everyone calmed down and left their individual squabbles behind to plan out Olympus' response.

Athena had somehow managed to push Minerva on the backburner and devised a strategy with Ares. Aphrodite and Hephaestus finally worked together, dragging Hermes into the planning of elaborate traps and baits for slowing down their enemies. Artemis, Apollo and Dionysus flitted between the groups, carrying ideas, refreshments and chiming in from their own standpoint.

However, the nastiest bits of Athena's plans were being discussed around Hestia's hearth: the six children of Kronos and Rhea were arguing and trying to figure out the Prophecy now that Hera manipulated it into their favor.

"' _To storm or fire, the world must fall.'_ is an obvious one, at least the first part. It leaves us with the Grace brat, Sephie and Valdez," Hades said, tapping a pen to the notebook he produced out of the depths of his robes. Zeus had no idea why he carried those things with him, but it helped a lot with connecting all the dots. "Any ideas what the second part could mean?"

"The world must fall…" Demeter hummed. "Why must it fall?"

"Don't you think we are putting too much emphasis on one line?" Hera asked, pursing her lips.

"Last prophecy was literally a word game," Poseidon snorted. " _A child_ of the elder gods, but _a hero's_ soul. Two near-synonyms for us, but still two different words that ended up meaning two different people. I'm not letting that happen again."

"Not when Sephie's life is on the line?" Hestia's lips quirked up, and Poseidon shamelessly nodded.

"It could be Mother Earth," Artemis piped in, replacing the jug with nectar and placing down a place of ambrosia squares. "My younger girls use the word 'world' to mean Earth."

"But that wouldn't make any sense," Zeus argued. "How can Earth fall?"

"Easy," Poseidon's eyes suddenly gained an unholy, terrifyingly familiar gleam. "How had Father managed to scatter his father beyond any hope of reformation?"

Zeus blinked at the old shine in his brother's eyes, and the embers of hope ignited into flames in his chest. _There_ was the reckless, yet genius strategist Zeus had been proud to have under his leadership during the first Titanomachy. _There_ was the man who managed to outsmart and outmaneuver the Crooked One and his brothers and nephews, who had foresight and time itself on their side; the man who laughed in the face of odds and turned them to his favor, a trait he had passed down to his daughter.

The other siblings did not miss the change, and Zeus could feel the energy spiking from them all as Hera's frown transformed into a bloodthirsty smile, Demeter's normally relaxed stance shifted into a fighter's, Hestia's blaze changed from warm into scorching hot, and Hades' dark aura flared outwards.

They were ready for a true war for the first time in five millennia.

"Hadn't he separated the Sky Lord from his domain?" Hades asked idly, taking off his Helm and twirling it in his hands. "His brothers held their father down to the ground for Father to butcher him."

"That's… Poseidon, you're not suggesting…"

At some point in their discussion, younger Olympians crowded around their elders, listening in on the discussion. Athena had been the one to speak up, her face slightly pale but the grip on her spear steady.

"I am," Poseidon smirked wickedly. "And it fits the requirements of the prophecy perfectly. She has to fall one way or another, and this is the only way to do so."

"I'm liking this new Uncle Poseidon," Ares muttered, his eyes burning and dancing in glee. "Where have you been in the past five millennia, for Creator's sake?! We could've had such fun!"

"Ares!" Aphrodite cuffed him over the top of his head. "This is not funny!"

"It's not, but it's a good reminder why Zeus distrusts his brother," Hera shook her head as Athena approached Poseidon and Zeus to discuss the insane idea Poseidon proposed, the bloodthirstiness of her smile not fading. "He _can_ unseat anyone if he wants to – but it takes a lot to get that side of him out to play. I think Athena just found her match."

"Is it wrong to enjoy this?" Apollo muttered to his sister, who gave a vague shrug.

"If it's wrong, we're all guilty of that sin," Hephaestus grumbled, doodling notes at the edge of his blueprints. "I don't think I've ever seen Athena and Poseidon work on strategy together."

"Let's hope we don't ever have to," Dionysus huffed, handing a goblet of wine to the rapt audience. "They're scary."

None of those who had heard him could disagree.

* * *

The plan was all set up. The Olympians were ready to take on Gaia, and the Camp Half-Blood was actively preparing to meet the Romans and cooperate with them. Leo Valdez and his siblings were having their hands full with constructing Argo II, and the other campers were being drilled under the watchful eyes of Ares' and Athena's children. Olympus was open again, and it wasn't a rarity for the gods to pop into the Camp for a quick update on proceedings or to deliver supplies and gifts.

There was only one thing missing: the girl who sparked the frenzy. Hera refused to tell anyone where the Sea Princess was, despite Hermes' and Poseidon's heavy pressuring, and Zeus had about enough of the gods nagging him to talk to his wife.

He was going to talk with her on his own time, without outside interferences. He knew her moods better than anyone, and he had to prepare himself and the setting for that conversation before jumping into it.

However, he had a little backup plan. He had not thought of his request to Hephaestus since the closing of Olympus, but now he could use it as an excuse to locate his niece. It grated at his pride to use what was supposed to be his apology gift as a means of locating Sephie, but he would gratefully take that option over talking with Hera.

His wife knew him too well, and Zeus was not going to walk into the minefield without the proper armor and exhausting all other possibilities.

"Hephaestus," Zeus called, stepping into the god's workshop. The place was cluttered with scraps, devices and blueprints, but it still maintained the look of order and had no signs of dust or dirt.

"Yes, my Lord?" The smith god came into the view from beneath the table, holding an oily rag and a bottle in his hands. "How can I help?"

"The request I made a few months ago," Zeus said hesitantly. "Is it done?"

Hephaestus blinked before nodding sharply.

"Of course." He walked into the back of the workshop, motioning for the Sky King to follow him. "Watch the pipes – I'm cleaning them out, but there's still a lot of dirt clinging to them."

Well, that explained the oily rag and the bottle.

"Jewelry… jewelry…" Hephaestus muttered, inspecting the mountain of boxes stacked neatly on the shelves on the back wall. Zeus took the opportunity to see what else his step-son had in stock and at hand.

The tools were hanging everywhere, as well as a good number of weapons. It amused the King to see them all neatly stacked in order of their invention, with spears and knives at beginning and what looked like every firearm ever thought of at the very end. There were also cannons, chariots that were disassembled to take up less space, and there was an entire cabinet out which papers – blueprints – stuck out and threatened to scatter everywhere.

"A-ha!" The victorious shout brought Zeus' attention back to Hephaestus, who was holding a thin wooden box in his hands. The box was plain, no adornment except an 'omega' emblazoned on the top of the box and a small 'eta' at the side.

"May I…?"

Hephaestus lifted the lid in lieu of answer, and Zeus' breath stopped in his throat.

Delicate silver belt shaped to resemble the waves coiled next to the set of pearl-and-amber incrusted brooches with the trident relief on them, and above them a glittering, silver filigree diadem with a single turquoise gem demanded the attention of the looker.

The jewelry worthy of a Queen.

"Perfect," Zeus breathed, his hand hovering over the box, not daring to touch the pieces. He knew Sephie had a fondness for _chitons_ , and for a moment he could imagine her wearing all of these: every detail screaming of her heritage, and still claiming her as _his…_

No. That was _not_ the road he should travel. Poseidon would _murder_ him.

"Thank you, Hephaestus. You've outdone yourself," Zeus thanked his step-son profusely, taking the box and returning the lid carefully back.

"It was nothing," the smith shrugged, but there was a small smile hovering on his lips. "I always like fun projects – those gems and pearls were difficult to integrate without straight out gluing them or breaking them."

"Nonetheless, thank you for indulging me." Zeus turned to leave. He would have Hermes take the box as a message and try to find Sephie that way.

"Humph," Hephaestus snorted. "I hope you know what you're doing. Her father will not be happy."

Zeus froze.

"I'm just saying," there was an audible shrug in the smith's voice. "Goodbye, my Lord."


	5. Deja vu

***creeps in***

 **Hi?**

 **I know, I know, it's been over a month since I last updated, but in my defense, uni just started and my schedule is filled to the brim with stuff I need to do. However, with a little help of one of you peeps (amberanderson145, who PMed me and kicked my ass into fifth gear) and a playlist of NU'EST/NU'EST W songs stuck on an infinite loop, I managed to get this out in whopping 6 hours! BTW, if you're a fan of K-pop, check these guys out, and particularly their backstory. You won't regret it.**

 **Now, review time!**

 **AwesomeFangirlOtaku01: I know, right? I laughed my head off thinking about their reaction. Love the nickname! ;)**

 **CTRI: Look out for the end of this chapter!**

 **Bella: Both you and I are right. Some versions of the myth about Hephaestus tell he's a son of Hera and Zeus, and some say Hera gave birth to him without sleeping with a man. I chose the other one because I think it fits Zeus' attitude and behavior towards Hephaestus better.**

 **Guest 1: Ah... that wasn't my intention! But I guess you could treat my Zeus/Percy one-shot as an AU.**

 **Guest 2: Aw, thank you! I've been working really hard on fleshing everyone and giving them motivations for their actions aside from 'Wizard did it!' or 'Plot' sort of explanation. As for the name... how about Sam Velos for a guy and Petra Arcadia for a girl? These are just suggestions, you can play with them all you want!**

 **Lonewolf125: But of course. He wouldn't be Zeus otherwise!**

 **VivianeDiPulci: Yup, yup! You'll have to wait a bit for the reactions, though - I can't have _that_ many filler chapters!**

 **BlueIvy: Hmm... maybe, maybe not. :D You'll have to wait to find out!**

 **Your Fan: I hate that part too, so no worries! I'll be changing that as soon as I can! (Also, you seriously made me blush with your nick.)**

 **Everyone else who asked me for an update and showered me with love, thank you so, so much!**

 **Now... drumroll please...**

 **Sephie's telling the story today!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

" _Déjà vu._ "

Once she spoke the word aloud, the feeling of rightness settled in her chest. She was onto something.

"I think you're right, Hazel."

Hazel's golden eyes widened before a soft smile appeared on her face.

"So maybe…?"

"Maybe," Sephie agreed, twirling a lock of her inky hair. "But I can't trust them just yet."

 _Them_ being her jumbled up, erased and reshuffled memories. Sometimes, she wished she had total amnesia, and not know anything: it would be better than this constant questioning of what was real and what was not.

"You'll find out the truth," Hazel said with such certainty, Sephie honestly felt a little jealous. How could this girl, who knew her for only a few weeks, believe in her so much? "I know you will. You won't settle for anything less."

And okay, that was true. She wasn't going to let blurry images and faint feelings stop her. No way. Some help, however, would be nice. Those pretty blue eyes she could recall were driving her _mad._

Who was this person she was remembering? Who were they to her? Lover? Friend? Parent? Sibling?

Somehow, she knew that once she got that answer, everything else would start making sense. Her non-existent surname, warm feelings she had around her father's domain, recognition of Mount Tam and simultaneous terror and love she felt at the sight…

Why she had been so scared of Hazel at first, too.

"Oh, and Octavian told me he 'needs your help, as quickly as you can'." The sheer amount of sarcasm in Hazel's voice made Sephie chuckle. Oh yes, and figure out how to politely tell Octavian to piss off without turning him against her.

"That guy really has no shame," Sephie shook her head, patting Pluto's daughter on the shoulder. "If I'm late, you have my permission to send him to your father, deal?"

"Uh-" Hazel flushed a little, looking seriously uncomfortable with the offer, making Sephie laugh harder.

"Relax! Just tell Reyna he called me again, and she'll get on his case. Maybe this time he'll get tossed in Tiber with weasels," Sephie couldn't contain a hopeful edge in her words.

"Let's hope so," Hazel nodded. "Good luck!"

"Thanks!"

The girls parted, Hazel heading for the Principia and Sephie walking up to the temple of Jupiter. As she walked, she stopped for a few seconds to touch the outer wall of her father's temple. As always, a pulse of warmth and _familyhappinesspride_ shot through the walls and her arm up her heart, lifting her spirits and making her spine tingle.

 _Gods don't interact with their children,_ was one of the first things Sephie had learned from Gwen and Hazel when she arrived at Camp Jupiter. _They only communicate through vague messages or auguries._ Sephie could see the conviction in their eyes, heard the stories of both retired legionnaires and serving ones, and yet she could swear some deity has been near her during her whole life. She lacked the memory of _whom_ , but the feeling persisted, and she had learned to trust her feelings during her time on streets.

"Ah, Sephie," Octavian smiled as she entered the temple of Jupiter, bowing to the statue of her uncle. "Any luck with your memories?"

Sephie shook her head, keeping her tongue in check. She could not afford this guy as an enemy, and she had a habit of insulting people in position of power – her first meeting with Lupa being the prime example.

 _Flashback_

 _The sun was setting, and the moon had already risen from the eastern skyline by the time Sephie had found a dry cave to settle in for the night. She would've loved to sleep under the starry sky, but the backpack she had woken up next to had nothing she could shelter her fire from the weather and she'd sooner impale herself on her hairpin-turned-sword than sleep without the protection of the fire._

 _On the other hand, being in the cave meant easily getting cornered, but there was nothing she could do about that. Besides, she was pretty good with the sword, and wasn't about to ask questions first and fire later._

 _Now, if only she could have a few hours of nice, uninterrupted sleep, but it didn't seem like that was going to happen any time soon. Strange things have been chasing her for the last two days, and she had had enough of it. So what if she was a 'half-blood', whatever that was – that doesn't give you an excuse to try and kill her!_

 _A rustle near the entrance of the cave startled her out of her tumultuous mess of thoughts, and her hand instantly shot up to the hairpin holding back her bangs. Adrenaline shot through her veins and coiled in her muscles, and she forcibly slowed her breathing, waiting for the origin of the sound to show itself._

 _Slowly, a grey wolf appeared at the entrance, sniffing around before locking eyes with the black-haired girl. There was no malice in the brown-black eyes, and from Sephie could read of the wolf's body language, it seemed more curious than ready to attack. She did not relax, though: wolves rarely traveled alone, and who knew what kind of pack it belonged to._

 _Suddenly, the wolf sat on its hind legs and howled shortly, and Sephie flinched before springing into action. The hairpin shifted into the sword as she spun it between her fingers, and wolf bolted at the sound of her running feet._

 _"Shit!" Sephie swore and gave chase to the opening of the cave, where she froze._

 _About a dozen or so wolves surrounded the opening of the cave, prowling or lazing around. The grey wolf she had chased after sat almost directly across her, flanking the rusty-brown wolf in the middle of the half-circle. Sephie's eyes locked on that wolf, and she instinctively knew this was the pack's alpha, their undisputed leader._

 ** _Impressive,_** _the alpha wolf growled, and Sephie was pleasantly surprised it was a female voice. She didn't even stop to question how a wolf was able to talk: after all the strange she had seen in the past couple of days, this was nothing._ _ **I had not expected you to be able to survive in the wild alone.**_

 _"I like being alive," Sephie shrugged, sword still held at ready. "And the backpack was useful."_

 ** _Well said_** _. If a wolf could smirk, Sephie was sure this one would be grinning like a hyena._ _ **Now, come with us, daughter of Neptune. Your determination served you well, but your supplies are not limitless.**_

 _"And why should I trust you?" Sephie spit back, the grip on the sword numbing the nerves in her fist. "I won't go with you just because you offered me a nice candy and a smile."_

 _Other wolves growled, their fur bristling, but the alpha stood up, silencing everyone._

 ** _Your suspicion is fine, daughter of Neptune, but you should watch how you speak,_** _the wolf growled before shifting into a human form. "Immortals may have soft spot for you, but even you would not be exempted from their wrath."_

Shaking away the memory, Sephie refocused on Octavian.

"Any luck with the auguries?"

The boy shrugged and motioned for her to pick out one of the stuffed toys. "Inconclusive so far. You've definitely traveled far, probably from north or east, but nothing else has been revealed."

Sephie picked out a cute puppy, already mourning the poor thing's passing: Octavian was merciless to the soft and fluffy things. Just like she had predicted, the augur tore the puppy's belly, revealing colored splotches on the white stuffing.

"Hmm…" Octavian brought the puppy closer for inspection. "Your father's symbol, as always… a pegasus, and a boat… a skyscraper? That's new."

"Skyscraper?" Sephie leaned over Octavian's shoulder for a closer look. Indeed, a picture of skyscraper could be seen in the splotches, and a strong feeling of _déjà vu_ hit her in the gut. "Empire State Building?"

She had no idea why she had suggested that name, but something just seemed _right_ about it.

"Maybe," Octavian reluctantly agreed. "But it makes very little sense. East is crawling with monsters; with your lineage, you would've died before your thirteenth birthday."

"I think it is," Sephie insisted, the feeling persisting. "It just feels right."

"Fine, fine!" Octavian sounded quite harried. "New York was an important part of your life."

Sephie nodded, glancing at the sky outside.

"Oh, the muster is soon. Sorry Octavian, gotta run!"

* * *

"You okay, Frank?" Sephie elbowed the Chinese-American boy to stop him from fidgeting with his _probatio_ tablet.

Her own tablet sat heavily on her neck, and she itched to take it off and finally stop getting all those judgmental looks from others. Yes, she's a daughter of Neptune; no, she didn't have a reference letter to get her into First or Second Cohort, but she likes Fifth anyway; and no, she's not going to cause earthquakes just because you piss me off, for Olympus' sake! Honestly, all that prejudice was starting to get on her last nerve, and she had half a mind to flood the Camp by raising Little Tiber's water level.

She wasn't that pissed off yet, thankfully.

"Y-yeah," Frank stuttered, pudgy face flushing a little as he clasped his hands behind his back in a military 'at ease' pose. "I-I'm totally okay."

"Sure," Sephie drawled out the word, glancing around herself to check for eavesdroppers before continuing in a hushed voice. "Those bruises you're trying to hide are a textbook definition of _fine_."

Frank's eyes widened, and he quickly tried to tug the T-shirt over the purpling patch of skin on his collarbone but failed completely.

"Tha-tha-It's nothing!" Frank insisted, eyes wildly looking around. "I tripped and fell on a stone."

"Liar," Sephie said with zero hesitation. "There are no tear-marks on the edges, and the color is uniformly distributed. Someone hit you with a blunt end of something – a spear or a sword, but spear is more likely."

Frank's silence spoke for itself, and Sephie sighed.

"Just because you're a _probatio_ does not give _anyone_ right to hit you like that. They could've broken your collarbone! You have to report it to Reyna."

"No!" Frank's eyes dilated until most of his warm brown irises were swallowed by black. "I can't report that to the praetor!"

"And why not?" Sephie needled, eyes narrowing. "What are you not telling me, Frank Zhang?"

Before Frank could open his mouth, Reyna rode out in front of the Legion, Scipio unusually twitchy.

 _Lady, lady! There's a visitor here for you!_

Sephie's eyebrows furrowed, and her heart started beating faster. A visitor? Had someone with knowledge about her past found her? She held her breath, not daring to hope. What if it wasn't anyone important to her, who only knew her by name or face?

"Legion!" Reyna called out, and two hundred-something people replied:

" _Ave, praetor!_ "

"Banners, forward!" The ceremony continued as usual, but Sephie could hear an unsettled edge in Reyna's voice. Something was definitely off.

"And before the dinner, there is one more announcement," Reyna said, lips pursed tightly. " _Probatio_ Sephie, step forward."

Sephie bit her lip as everyone turned towards her. She was the only one who was called by her first name, since she couldn't remember her last name and nothing Lupa had told her helped her in that regard. Taking a deep breath, she moved out of the line and walked up to Reyna.

" _Praetor,_ " Sephie saluted and waited for Reyna to say her piece.

Reyna stayed silent, however, motioning for the person Sephie could not see to come closer. They obeyed, and the light of the setting sun cast a halo around the dirty blonde hair and sky-blue eyes that reflected the light like a polished diamond.

" _You._ "

 _SLAP!_

* * *

"No, I'm not sorry." Sephie sounded like a broken CD-player to herself, constantly repeating the same sentence as everyone looked at her in shock. In their defense, they had a good reason to gawk: she had just slapped a god for no apparent reason, and he had not lifted a finger to punish her.

"But why did you do that?" Hazel was probably the most confused person crowding around Sephie after they separated her and Mercury. "What had he done to you?"

"The eyes," Sephie growled, sending a nasty glare at the Olympian. "They were _his_ eyes."

Hazel blinked once, not quite understanding at first, and then her golden eyes cooled considerably.

"I see."

Frank and Gwen, who were close enough to hear the conversation, looked rather lost, and Mercury winced.

"May we speak privately?" the god asked formally, looking Sephie directly in the eye.

Sephie frowned, thinking about the request. The mere sight of Mercury unlocked a whole torrent of emotions and memories she was relatively sure were real: she had not had time to sift through them all, and she needed someone who could confirm their validity.

And yet… she hesitated. _Relationships between gods and mortals are doomed to fail,_ a voice came from the back of her mind, and Sephie had to agree with her subconsciousness. There was no way her and Mercury's story would end well, it was just not possible.

"Okay," she said finally, deciding to give the god one chance – his last one. If he fucked it up, well, he would not be able to say she had blown him off immediately.

Everyone moved out of their way, allowing Sephie and Mercury to get out of the crowd and find a quiet place to talk to. Sephie took the lead and walked to one of the bridges crossing the Little Tiber. No one went there so close to the sunset, and there was absolutely no way one could eavesdrop without being spotted.

"Talk," Sephie crossed her arms and leaned on the bridge's railing.

Mercury sighed, and his face flickered for a second, hair greying slightly at the roots. By all rights, he should've loked intimidating to her, but Sephie could not feel the supposed 'godly aura'. To her, he was just like any other guy she could remember meeting, with additional perk of being immortal.

"What do you remember?"

"A whole jumble of nothing," Sephie huffed. That was true: apart from the time they had spent together and images of another blue-eyed blonde boy Sephie could swear was his son, things were still a mystery. "I don't even know who my mom is, or who my friends are!"

"I see," Mercury nodded. "So the spell is still mostly in effect."

"Mostly in effect?" Sephie all but shouted, indignant. "Mostly?!"

"The spell should've suppressed your memories completely," Mercury explained with a pinched expression. "You should've only remembered your name and age, but something apparently went wrong and you managed to get out of Juno's stasis way too early. Good job, by the way," a smile ghosted around his lips.

"I don't know; now I'm stuck with a bunch of memories and I can't tell which are real and which aren't," Sephie grumbled. "How's that a good job?"

"Because you managed to get everyone to care," Mercury was now smiling, and Sephie's heart skipped a beat. Gods, who gave him the permission to look so beautiful? "You are our little miracle, and we all love you."

There was something indecipherable in his voice that awoke an image in her head: a couple, man and a girl, chasing each other on the beach and splashing each other before collapsing side by side, laughing their heads off.

 _You're my miracle, Seph._

 _Aw, Hermes, you're gonna rot my teeth out with all that sweetness!_

"Really?" Sephie asked softly. "All of you?"

Mercury – or was it Hermes? Godsdammit, choose a name and stick to it! – snorted and fished a box out of the messenger bag.

"You have Father sending apology gifts to you – I'm positive everyone on Olympus at least likes you."

"Apology gifts?" Sephie gaped at the messenger god, eyes darting between the man and the flat wooden box he was holding. "Okay, just how many gods have I met so far?"

Mercury/Hermes cracked a smile.

"I'll let you remember that on your own. I'm bending the rules as it is by staying so long." He pushed the box into her hands. "Take it. Oh, and don't ask me what's inside, because I don't know either. Father and Vulcan kept everything hush-hush."

Sephie looked at the box with renewed interest. Okay, so her uncle was sending her gifts. That was… slightly creepy? But also interesting enough to make her want to see what was inside the box. She popped the lid, surprised at the near weightlessness of what looked like solid wood, and nearly dropped the box.

"What-?"

To call the jewelry inside the box beautiful would be a gross understatement. Pearls and sapphires winked at her from the brooches and the honest-to-gods diadem, and the coiled belt in the cornered looked like it was spun from the moonlight and not the silver Sephie guessed it to be. Every single detail looked so pretty and fragile, yet Sephie could see the tightness of the metal, the strength it hid behind the pretty exterior.

In a lot of ways, Sephie could see herself in that jewelry, and the urge to put it on immediately was nearly irresistible.

"So that's what Father had been hiding," Mercury/Hermes' voice snapped her out of her awe-filled thoughts, and Sephie took a good look at the god's face.

 _Oh shit._

He looked pissed.

 _Good luck, Uncle,_ Sephie thought as the pang of familiarity went through her at the sight of that expression.


	6. Help me

**Well... it's been a while. Nearly three months, to be precise. I have nothing to say but the dreaded words of every FFNet reader: 'RL caught up to me'. Yep - RL kicked my ass pretty thoroughly, and I was in a deep writing slump. Thankfully, holidays managed to rouse me up a bit, so I decided to get this out as fast as I could (but you gotta factor in my uni asignments and RL, like I previously mentioned). As a thank you for waiting for so long, I decided to tackle all of your reviews and include a special cameo in this chapter!**

 **GuardianXAngel: Ah, thank you! I pride myself in trying to subvert expectations while still keeping things flowing smoothly. And I really wanted to throw that wrench in Sephie/Hermes relationship - particularly since we all know Juno/Hera doesn't really approve of gods fraternizing with mortals, even if their name is Sephie Jackson.**

 **CTRI: Well... *looks at the chapter below* is this good enoough?**

 **Grin like A Cheshire Cat: No worries, I'm not separating these two lovebirds! They just need to get around this particular obstacle.**

 **Cynder2013: Yep: the idea of Athena and Poseidon working together gave _me_ chills, and I was the one who wrote that chapter! As for Zeus being tag-teamed, this chapter should be okay... I hope.**

 **Guest 1: Sephie being the chaotic one is such a mood, right? :) And Petra Arcadia is a combination of Latin (petra/petros - stone) and Greek (Arcadia - the legendary rocky province in Greece, known mostly for its serene yet harsh beauty and original Mt. Olympus that resides there). I thought it appropriate, everything considered.**

 **ireliathebladetranceder: Wow, rushing me a bit, aren'cha? Relax, I have plans for Sephie, but she needs to get through this mess with Gaea first.**

 **nightshaderules: Thank you for waiting, and look below for the reaction!**

 **Guest 2: I'm not usually into writing extremly possesive behavior from either side of relationship (bad memories, tbh), but Hermes had made it perfectly clear Sephie is his girl to other gods, no worries.**

 **Ashviqua Kadar: You bet someone's gonna get it!**

 **Your Fan: She kept getting reminded of Luke and his gold and blue eyes - that's why she had trouble trusting Hazel at first, bcs her mind subconsciously connected her eyes to Kronos'. That's why she slapped Mercury - his and Luke's eyes are nearly identical, and she was under impression he was a _bit not good_ , in words of John Watson. And for Mercury being more relaxed... *fake whisper* he actually let Hermes out for a few minutes there on the bridge. That's why he was behaving a bit off.**

 **BlueIvy: *points up* This is why - kudos to you and everyone else who caught Mercury acting a little odd! And eh... *blushes violently* you guys are seriously flattering me way too much! But if I ever decide to publish the book, I'll post the update here!**

 **Lady Lyanna Stark 311029:** **Obrigado! I don't speak Portugese, but I'm glad you're so satisfied with my fanfic!  
**

 **Guest 3: I was, actually, but I'm not going to tackle that until I finish HoSA!**

 **Guest 4: Noice pun ;)**

 **Guest 5: I know, I know, I've been a terrible author... but I'm back? And I repeat: you guys are flattering me way too much! But I'm glad you're loving this.  
**

 **To everyone else I didn't mention: thank you for being paitent with me! Also, thank you and huge ILY to all of my 343 faves and 445 followers: some of you comment, a lot of you don't but you keep me and my story on your radar, and I'm eternally thankful for that!**

 **Okay, AN time over... time to get back to the story! There's a little surprise waiting for you... *wink wink* I had such a fun time writing it! And to pre-emptively clear things up: SoN quest has not started yet - it will happen in the next chapter, so you'll have to sit tight for a bit longer for that.**

* * *

"Poseidon, _help me_!"

Poseidon blinked and placed down the photobook he was idly swiping through. The book did not look especially thick, but it held pictures and photos of every single one of his children in the past six centuries, commemorating their successes and quests. Sephie's chapter was at the very end, and Poseidon had a feeling she would eat out the rest of the available space, what with the amount of quests and prophecies revolving around her.

But he was getting lost in his thoughts needlessly. Zeus was calling for his attention.

"Yes, brother?"

"Please, _please,_ let me hide in your temple here!" Zeus spilled it out, looking francitally over his shoulder. " _PLEASE!_ "

"Okay?" Poseidon waved carelessly at the entrance of the temple he was sitting in front of, lowering the wards around them. "But this isn't an open invitation for forever, alright?"

"Yes, yes, thank you!"

Seconds after Zeus rushed into the temple, Hermes flew up to Poseidon, hair flying everywhere and face beet-red.

 _What was going on?_

"Uncle P, have you seen Father?" The redness, Poseidon realized, was not from the running around, but from anger: it was dripping off Hermes' tongue, and his eyes held a manic glint Poseidon had learned to fear a long time ago. None of the Pleiades were nice when angered, and even Maia and Hermes, the most even-tempered ones, were to be avoided when furious.

 _So, Zeus angered his son… now only to figure out exactly why._

"No, I have not," Poseidon shrugged, oh-so-casually flipping open the photobook to the page with Sephie's baby pictures Sally gave him during his last visit to her and her new beau's apartment. "Want to see Sephie's baby photos?"

Hermes blinked at the non-sequitur, eyes zooming in on the open photobook. Poseidon watched with amusement as Hermes fought internal battle with himself: to continue hunting for Zeus, or to stay and look at Sephie's adorable baby photos?

Zeus was so going to owe Poseidon for this. He must've done something really, really stupid if Hermes was this pissed off, and there was no way Poseidon would be able to cover for his brother indefinitely.

 _Oh yes, he's going to owe him a big favor for this._

"Show me," Hermes finally gave in and sat next to his uncle, wings on his shoes fluttering softly as he fixed his messy hair. "How did you get them, anyway?"

"Sally gave them to me," Poseidon shamelessly admitted, touching the photos with fondness.

Gods didn't usually visit their lovers – it would endanger their children and the lover in question, and more often than not their former lovers didn't want to do anything with them – but Sally was different. She was a good sport about Poseidon having to leave, and her new beau Paul, while a bit shocked, was accommodating to the father of his step-daughter.

"At least you try for Sephie's sake," was Paul's explanation when Poseidon asked him why he tolerated the god. "I'm a teacher – you wouldn't believe what kind of things divorced parents force their children to go through, and they don't have an excuse of ruling an entire _realm_ when they ignore them."

That did boost Poseidon's ego a little – he knew he couldn't be there for his children, but to know his efforts were appreciated was nice to know.

"Oh, she must've really liked you," Hermes smiled as he took a photo of Sephie's first birthday to inspect it more closely. "Most of our lovers tell us to piss off if we come to visit. What's your secret?"

"Caring," Poseidon shrugged, hearing the hidden meaning behind his question. So, Hermes was thinking about it before acting. Good – that'd spare Hermes the pain of feeling his trident going through his private parts. "But it did help that Sally knew I was a god, and she told me up-front she didn't expect me to stay forever. It made things a lot easier to digest."

"I see," Hermes murmured, returning the photo and turning the page. "Ew, who's this?"

Poseidon looked at the photo his nephew was pointing to and swallowed down the rising anger. The man was well and properly dead, enjoying his and his brother's joint punishment in the Fields for daring to touch their Sephie. There was no sense in getting angry over it again.

"Gabriel Ugliano, Sephie's former step-father."

"Former, huh?" Hermes smirked, hearing the implication in Poseidon's voice. "Former, as in being Uncle H's permanent resident?"

"I didn't kill him," Poseidon defended himself, but couldn't resist smiling. "I only, ah, sent the gift Sephie sent the Council on her first quest back to the sender."

"You didn't!" Hermes gaped before bursting into laughter. "You sly dog, you, Uncle P! That was downright evil!"

"He deserved it," Poseidon waved it off. "He deserved worse, actually – getting turned to stone was too kind of a death. At least his afterlife is fitted to his crimes."

"Goo – ah shite!" Hermes jumped up. "I forgot to tell Uncle H I found Sephie!"

"You did?" Poseidon demanded, raising up as well. "Where is she?"

"Camp Jupiter – but if you go there, Father will murder you," Hermes warned him, his features changing for a split second into Mercury's before returning to Greek form. "I'm not kidding now."

"Don't worry, I won't," Poseidon reassured his nephew, his mind clicking away at full speed. There were always ways around Zeus' command, and he knew exactly who could help him in the endeavor. The only thing now was to get Hermes away and create a proper distraction. "Now off you go! Hades won't be happy if you keep him waiting!"

"Aye, aye!"

And Hermes was gone with a whoosh, leaving only dust and faint smell Poseidon had learned to associate with modern megalopolises – a mixture of asphalt, ozone, paper and smoke – behind him. Shaking his head at the air-headedness of the younger immortal, Poseidon stood up and summoned the trident.

"I hope you weren't lying to Hermes."

"And I hope you realize you owe me for covering your sorry behind," Poseidon fired back at his brother. "What in the world did you do to get him that pissed off?"

"Nothing, I promise!" Zeus even raised his hands in surrender, but Poseidon smelled a rat somewhere there. His brother wasn't _technically_ lying to him, but he was keeping mum on something. The fact he thought he could hide it from his older brother was hilarious.

"Uh-huh, and Hermes was actually Ares in disguise. Spill it, _adelfos_ ," Poseidon ordered him with his _I'm your older brother so you better start talking_ voice he had picked up from Hestia. He was not a pro like her, but his impression got things done most of the time.

"I may have sent an apology gift to Sephie?" Zeus said it like it was a question.

Poseidon frowned. Apology gifts from a King of Gods? Either Zeus screwed something up royally with Sephie, or he was trying to butter her up because he had done something stupid without her knowledge.

"I see… but Hermes wouldn't have overreacted just for a gift from you."

But Zeus refused to say anything more on the topic, so Poseidon quickly dismissed himself and went to Hades' temple to talk with him. The Lord of Underworld may not have been welcome on the Olympus, but his temple held a mirror Poseidon had used before to contact his older brother.

" _I see Hermes told you as well,_ " Hades said instead of greeting. He was in his study by the looks of things: the room was far more lit than the throne room.

"Hello to you too, brother," Poseidon couldn't resist adding in a little snark. "And yes, he did tell me about Sephie."

" _I thought you of all people wouldn't mind dispensing with needless formality,_ " Hades jabbed.

"This is called _politeness_ , not formality. Mother would've strangled you if she had heard you talking like that," Poseidon chuckled and leaned back into the chair he took before making the call. "How are things with you? Going well?"

" _Somewhat,_ " Hades sighed. " _With Thanatos being chained, I'm having hard time keeping an eye on the escapees – you lot better be prepared to help me out after we're done with grandmother._ "

"I will," Poseidon promised him. It was high time the two of them settled all debts and scores hanging between them, both unspoken and written ones. "Is the plan going well?"

" _Very well,_ " Hades smirked. " _Alecto in particular is very pleased with her role in it. I have to admit, I didn't think your suggestion would work, brother._ "

"I told you – give a person a proper incentive, and they'll jump on the chance to work for you," Poseidon shrugged modestly. "That's how I keep all my subjects in line."

Hades nodded on the other side of the mirror. " _I have to go now brother. When do you want me to send them over to you?_ "

"After the sunset," Poseidon decided after checking Apollo's position in the sky. "It's in about an hour or so."

" _Very well. Stay safe._ "

"You as well."

* * *

The sunset crept up on Poseidon quicker than he expected: time in general meant very little to immortals, but when they were expecting a certain time, it tended to crawl – so this was a surprise.

"Lord Poseidon?" Luke Castellan peeked in. The Hero of Olympus still looked a bit washed out and pale, the remainder of the fact he was still very much Hades' subject, but he was holding out well.

"Come in Castellan," Poseidon let him in. "How is the training going?"

"Solid," Luke collapsed onto the foamy couch. "Some of the dead were being a bit uncooperative, but Achilles and Hector decided to gang up on them – they're currently being treated for sprains and rug burns."

Poseidon chuckled at the thought: if those two were teaming up, then the offenders were more than a _bit_ uncooperative – but he was going to let it slide. Luke looked stressed enough as it was, and he needed the boy calm for the plan to work out.

Whatever he thought about his sire' s former Host, he couldn't deny his gift for strategy; his time with Kronos had only amplified the gift and given him additional set of tricks to play with. Besides, taking a page out of Kronos' playbook might be the key thing that would win them this war, and Poseidon did _not_ plan on losing.

"Your father visited today."

"Oh? Does he know about…?" Luke left the sentence hanging in the air, but Poseidon could see the desperate longing in the demigod's eyes, the direct contrast with the nonchalant tone he used.

Hadn't he gone over to Poseidon's father because he felt unloved, unwanted by his father? Well, Poseidon was feeling particularly accommodating today: the news of his daughter's whereabouts put him in a surprisingly good mood.

"I planned on telling him today, but he rushed off," Poseidon huffed, and sent out a mental call to his nephew. "But I guess it won't be too much of trouble to call him in and let you two meet now."

"Thank you," Luke said quietly, taking out the golden necklace with silver bewinged shoe on it from underneath his shirt and playing with. "Thank you, Lord Poseidon."

Poseidon only shrugged in reply. He had not done much, comparatively speaking – Hermes and Luke had to sort things out between themselves, and that in Poseidon's experience was the hardest part. He had extended the invitation and an apology to Kympoleia on Sephie's urging this summer and ran into a stone wall of denial and insults for his efforts. Thankfully, Sephie had warned him not to expect immediate results ( _Trust me, those things need time – I'd be more worried if she accepted the apology immediately!_ ), and now he had started repairing that relationship.

"Yeah, Uncle P? Why did you…" Hermes chirped as he walked in, and then stopped dead in his tracks as he caught sight of Luke lounging on the couch.

Luke slowly stood up, and Poseidon decided to retreat to the back of the room and let father and son reunite in peace. He had a distraction to execute, and for that he needed to find Zeus. No one, not even his baby brother, was keeping him away from his daughter.

"My Lord," a skeleton of someone – Poseidon had no idea whom, but he trusted his brother's discretion – bowed to him. "What do you need of us?"

"I need you to occupy Hera while I talk with my brother," Poseidon instructed the minions of Underworld. "Scare her, break into her closet – just get her occupied so she won't interrupt my chat."

The skeletons bowed again and went away, while Poseidon walked up to Zeus's temple. A knock later, he was inside, where he found his brother sitting at the windowsill and watching Artemis' chariot rise from the waves.

"Wasting time before going to bed, brother?" Poseidon inquired, walking up to his brother and leaning on the other side of the window.

"Not exactly," Zeus sighed and went through his hair with fingers. "Just a lot of things on my mind, brother. This war, the last one… I'm tired."

"We all are," Poseidon noted, settling in for a conversation. "Olympus may have been the target, but all of its allies were hit as well. We need you to stay strong, Zeus."

"I know," Zeus laughed bitterly. "That's part of the problem, dear brother. Who can I confide in when I'm feeling this weak, this tired? That thrice-damned prophecy of Father's has not been invalided yet."

"Which – oh, that one," Poseidon realized with a pang. The one Father spoke as his sons chopped him to pieces – _your children will depose you like you did me_. "But you should know most of your children won't try and tear you apart if you show weakness."

"You underestimate our Father's blood, brother," Zeus groaned and slumped in his seat. "We craved that power, didn't we? And so do they. Not as obviously, not as openly, but they do crave the feeling the power of deciding the fates of immortals and mortals bring. Creating the Council may have soothed the worst of that feeling, but it's not gone."

"Then talk to me and Hades, or Hera or Hestia if you cannot trust us enough," Poseidon walked over to his brother and hugged him briefly. "We love you still, despite our disagreements."

"Don't make me laugh, Poseidon," Zeus snorted, but there was genuine smile on his face. "You'd laugh in my face if I talked to you of my feelings."

"Even gods can change," Poseidon shook his head, smiling as well. "And, well.. having a mortal daughter changed my perception on a few things concerning the mess we call our family."

"As long as you don't turn into Hera," Zeus and Poseidon simultaneously shuddered at Zeus' words.

"Toss me to Hades for mental recalibration if that ever happens, deal?"

"Deal. Now, why are you visiting?"

"To talk about you sending apology gifts to my daughter," Poseidon decided to be direct. "What did you do that made you think you needed to send her an apology gift?"

Zeus instantly grew fidgety.

"I may have said something stupid on her birthday, and then gone a little overboard with the gift…"

Poseidon raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth to question things further, but in that moment Luke and Hermes blazed in, almost pinning Zeus to the wall.

" _What gave you the right to give her wedding jewelry to Sephie?!_ "

 _Oh. OH._

That changed things a _lot_ in Poseidon's books. He demonstratively turned away and let Hermes and Luke chase his brother all over Olympus, swearing not to cover for his brother's idiocy ever again.

Besides, thins gave him a perfect opportunity to sneak away and see Sephie for himself, and not just in the murky depths of the gazing orb.


	7. Of cowards and heroes

**... 'lo, everyone.**

 **I'm so, so tired. I just finished my finals for this term(passed them, thank Gods), and I'm exhausted and in very, very shitty mood. In fact, I have no idea how I managed to finish this chapter without either collapsing or just giving up on it and declaring hiatus on Heroine. But, I promised you guys updates when I have free time, and I'm a woman of my word. Hope you guys understand me and forgive me my extended disappearances from FFNet :(**

 **Now, review time!**

 **Grin like the Cheshire Cat: Sephie kicking Hermes' ass will have to wait a little, but he's not getting away unscathed, don't worry!**

 **Guest 1: Oh, she'll be meeting Hades soon! I have an idea for the next chapter, and gods will definitely feature heavily in it.**

 **Petra Arcadia: It was my pleasure making your name! As both an author and person who was raised to value meaning of the name, I know how important names are. As for the original work.. heh :) I hope I'll have it done one day, so you guys can see what else I can do!**

 **Oughttologin: ... LMAO :D Your review made me laugh so, so hard! The title was actually stolen from a song that talks about the singer realizing they are trapped in a cursed dream, and asking the listener to help them out of it.**

 **Ester Shadow: Short, sweet, and so on point. I like :)**

 **Death Fury: Thank you! I try my best!**

 **Lonewolf125: Oh no, when I said it was wedding jewelry, I meant they were usually gifted from groom to bride as the dowry of sorts. The custom varies from culture to culture, but groom is supposed to gift expensive things to bride's family as proof he can take care of her. Heroes of old... well, they have only heard about her, so I never really thought about their point of view. Maybe as eventual one-shot or spin-off once I'm done with HoSA?**

 **CTRI: *snickers* My advice? Don't. He made that bed, let him sleep in it.**

 **AwesomeFangirlOtaku01: Pretty much, yeah. Poseidon being YOLO is the mood ;)**

 **Guest 2: I had a creepy grin while I wrote the ending... need I say more?**

 **Cloud Dreamer313: Yep, Zeus should've known better. Hera and Hades will be having _words_ with him, don't worry - just not in this chapter! And Luke insert was spur-of-the-moment decision, but I'm glad I made it!**

 **Victoria Saint Claire: Hera was actually rescued just in time for the winter solstice - I re-read Lost Hero to be sure I was timing it correctly. So Hera actually attended Winter Solstice meeting, since Jason, Leo and Piper got her out before it ended.**

 **Blue Ivy: Heeeeey, don't go around revealing ALL the Easter eggs I sprinkled in ahahaha - but yes, that's sort of the endgame here.**

 **Chocolate Life: It was a bit of a challenge showing schizophrenia when I have no experience with mental illnesses, but I went off the most known symptoms to reconstruct how gods might behave within parameters of Uncle Rick's universe (hearing voices, paranoia, impulsive decisions, out-of-character behavior).**

 **Now, time to hear from our favorite Chinese-Canadian-Greek-Roman demigod (holy Hades, that's a lot of hypehens!)...**

 **Son of Neptune quest, here we come!**

* * *

Frank Zhang, was, in his own words, a coward.

He wasn't your typical coward, though: through living with his strict grandmother, he had learned when to pull back and when to press on, which wasn't cowardly. That was called strategic thinking, not cowardice.

He was coward when it came to admitting things and 'fessing up.

The piece of firewood that kept him alive was the prime example of him being a coward: he didn't want anyone to use the innocuous little thing against him, even though he knew Hazel and Sephie would never do such a thing. His mind knew how much his two friends cared for him, and yet he still couldn't admit to his life literally being tied to a piece of wood, just so the two would not freak out later.

His crush on Hazel was the second good example. Everyone he had asked for love advice – which included several children of Venus and Amor, as well as a few of married couple in New Rome – all told him the same thing: _just confess and be done with it. If the friendship you have is true, it will survive this, and your love will cool off eventually._

Frank couldn't do it. He was far too scared of losing Hazel – and by extension Sephie, because the two girls were inseparable, bonding over their cursed descent – to go ahead and try to heal his love-stricken heart. He needed them in his life.

However, when he planned on being their friend for the rest of his life, however long that ends up being (and he wasn't going to pretend they will have forever, children of Big Three had a nasty track record when it came to living past teen years), he failed to factor in Sephie's mysterious past. Hazel had been tight-lipped about her own past, but Frank got the vibe she was done with her past, and that people in her past were done with her.

Sephie, though… Sephie still didn't know much about what happened to her, and Frank should've known her loss of memory wasn't something simple and innocent. Not when she could recall a blonde boy she couldn't decide whether she hated or loved ( _Luke, his name is Luke, and he sometimes had blue eyes, and sometimes gold_ , Sephie told him and Hazel about a week after she came into Camp Jupiter. _I think I loved him, but I'm also pretty sure I hated him._ ). Not when she spoke in a strange mix of Latin and Greek, mixing up the names of deities and speaking strangely about them, as if she had met them and they failed to impress her.

Mercury's visit should've been the first red flag that Sephie's past was coming back, in retrospect. But there was nothing Frank could do now: he had been claimed – by Mars, of all people, but it sort of explained why his grandma told him his mother believed she would find him again in the battlefield – and he had a quest to free Death handed to him by Sephie's father.

And boy, that was one shitshow Frank had not been prepared for.

 _The war games night after Mercury's visit were fraught with tension. Sephie, Reyna and Octavian had words in Principia that morning, and the augur and daughter of Neptune left the building glaring daggers at each other. Per tradition, First and Second Cohort defended, and Third, Fourth and Fifth were attacking, and the pair elected themselves masterminds of the game._

 _Octavian went all out on the dirty tricks, setting up fire arrows and hay balls, clustering archers and dagger-users on the places where the wall were easy to scale and doubling down on the siege doors. Sephie retaliated in kind, sending Hazel underground to lead the sneak attack on the side while she dragged half of Little Tiber to batter down the first set of siege doors and create absolute chaos in defense._

 _Frank had never played a war game that reminded him so much of actual warfare: even with Reyna overlooking the battlefield to spot anyone breaking the rules, it still felt so real. Sephie was commanding the troops like she had been doing it for over a decade, and Octavian kept throwing out unexpected surprises their way, making it difficult for Frank and Hazel to scale the wall and execute their part of the plan – divert defenders' attention from the gates so that Sephie could slam them down with Hannibal._

 _In the end, the attackers managed to grab the flags – Frank netting himself his first Mural Crown – and get them out of the base, Reyna declaring them the victors. Frank had never been so proud of both himself and his cohort: Third and Fourth did help a lot with sheer manpower, and to their credit they listened to Sephie's plans without protest, but there was no denying the fact Fifth Cohort's 'Neptune spawn' had literally won them the game, with little assistance from him and Hazel._

 _Unfortunately, not everyone was happy with the outcome: Octavian in particular looked pissed off. So, when Gwen, one of Fifth Cohort's commanders, turned up with spear of First Cohort stabbed through her chest, Frank instantly suspected foul play on augur's part. Unfortunately, it was impossible to prove it, since the spears were not engraved with the owner's name, only the cohort number._

 _Just when Frank made peace with the fact Gwen was dead and the culprit will have to wait until they die to get punishment they deserved (he was decidedly NOT thinking about asking Hazel to contact her father and have her plead for a worse sentence), several things happened._

 _Gwen woke up – completely disoriented, asking why she was not of the Ferryman's boat –, blood-red spear and sword appeared above Frank's head, and a tall deity with inky-black hair and poison-blue eyes appeared in front of them, in that exact order._

 _Frank fell on his knee, totally overwhelmed by the shock of claiming, Gwen being alive and deity's oppressive aura. He had no time to look for the identifying symbols: the power surrounding him was too much for him to keep his head up._

 _"Ey, tone it down a bit with the intimidation factor," Sephie's voice pierced the stifling silence. "You lot don't visit at all, and now one of Big Three crashes this wonderful party – care to explain, Father?"_

 ** _Father?!_**

 _Frank could not believe his ears. Gods had not contacted their mortal offspring directly for over one and half millennia – and the first contact ends up being Neptune the Earthshaker? Not to mention, how had Sephie not been vaporized yet after speaking so brazenly?_

 _"You are lucky you have my blood, child," Neptune's voice rumbled over them, and the pressure lightened considerably. "Not many are allowed to be so brazen with gods."_

 _"Sea doesn't like to be restrained," Sephie shot back, and Frank lifted his head to look incredulously at his friend. What was she doing? Trying to get herself killed? "And you're avoiding my question. Care to explain this…" She gestured at Gwen, currently supported between Dakota and Jennie. "… whole mess? Dead should stay dead, no?"_

 _"Indeed, child," Neptune nodded, standing proud at roughly 12 feet, trident flickering with green light. He was dressed in sharp suit, but no cravat, and looked directly at Frank. "And that's why Fates demanded Frank Zhang, son of Mars, to lead the question to free Letum from his chains."_

 _Death could be chained? Frank wasn't aware of that. One glance at Hazel revealed the girl had paled considerably under her chocolate-skinned cheeks. Sephie hummed, looking like the story was vaguely familiar to her._

 _"Wonderful – Underworld must be in total disarray. Speaking of which," and here Sephie tilted her head, "isn't a prophecy supposed to start the quest?"_

 _"Not before the quester accepts," the Lord of Seas fixed his gaze on Frank, and Frank cowered under the intensity of it. "Do you accept, son of Mars?"_

 _Frank gulped and nodded, completely robbed of words. Neptune shook his head, muttering to himself before producing a small scroll._

 ** _Children of war and death to resurrect what was buried,_**

 ** _And bury what was resurrected long time ago._**

 ** _The forbidden land's temptation, sea's child shall seek,_**

 ** _And life's fire shall set winged god free._**

 _"Oh beautiful," Sephie snorted after Neptune read out the prophecy._

 _Frank kind of wished he hadn't accepted before he heard the prophecy._

That wish had come into his mind not once during their journey to Alaska. With little consultation with Reyna, the questers figured out Letum – or Death – was likely kept prisoner there, due to it being considered 'land beyond gods', thus forbidden. Also, the phrase of 'forbidden land's temptation' had sparked a short flashback in Sephie: a male voice asking her to leave everything behind, and run away with him to Alaska, where no deity would be able to find them.

Frank could not say he was very happy about it, and Hazel looked ready to vomit any time Alaska was mentioned, but Sephie helped them out, keeping their spirits lifted by cracking jokes and telling them gossip fish and other sea creatures talked to her about.

She purposefully avoided talking about the prophecy. Frank hated himself to not having the guts to tell them about the last line.

* * *

The first thing that hit Frank, once they arrived, was the icy wind. He had thought he was ready for anything after Phineas' horrifying feast, Polybotes' basilisks, playing deadly games with Gaia to help Sephie with her memory loss and Arion's potty mouth (Sephie's words, not his), and he was from _Canada_ , cold was normal, but this cold… It wasn't natural. Something about it bypassed physical restraints and sneaked straight into his heart and mind, paralyzing his heart and messing with his head.

"This is weird, I didn't feel this cold two minutes ago," Hazel shivered at his side, and Frank thoughtlessly dragged her closer to his body to share body heat. Sephie was crouching a few steps ahead, analyzing the stretch of flat ice in front of them, biting her lip.

"We're in some deep shit," she told them after she return. "Thanatos is chained, but that's actually the least of our problems – his guardian is freaking _Alcyoneus_. Sorry Haze."

Hazel twitched violently at Frank's side, and he hugged her tighter. Ever since she told them her story – horrible, heartbreaking story of coming back from dead, of being the one responsible for raising Alcyoneus – Frank made sure to reassure her whenever she felt down. Yes, he was aware part of it was because he adored her _so much_ , but part was definitely out of concern for her. Dealing with that sort of guilt, Frank knew from the stories from his grandmother, never ended well.

"It's okay," Hazel's voice wavered before steadying. "I can deal with him."

"If you say so," Sephie didn't look completely reassured. "Yell if you need help at any moment, Haze, okay?" Hazel nodded. "Also, I… "

Sephie's eyes lost focus, and to Frank's utter horror, her eyes started shifting slowly from sea-green to bright, molten gold. When Frank tried to touch her, his hand collided with thin, invisible barrier no force could break, separating daughter of Neptune from her quest mates.

"Welcome, heroes," Alcyoneus called from the other side of the clearing. "Come closer – I've been dying to see those my mother hates so much."

Frank didn't want to move, but Thanatos was chained behind the giant, so he had to come closer anyway. He didn't control fire – he couldn't just lit his firewood and send it to chains from far away.

Sephie was still out of it though, and Frank didn't know what to do. Should he leave her there? Try to break through the barrier again?

"Oh, worried about Poseidon's daughter?" Alcyoneus laughed. "You cannot help her now, son of Mars – she has to face her temptation alone."

"Why is she like this?" Hazel finally snapped at the giant. "She looks possessed!"

"Well, I presume her memories aren't back yet, even with your help…" Alcyoneus chuckled, looking far too amused. Frank wanted to pulverize him. "I suppose I could tell you the story before I destroy you. Mind you, I only heard bits and pieces, the only ones who know the entire story are my dear half-brother, his former Host – currently very much dead – and the girl." The giant sat down next to Letum, ignoring the freezing chill of ice he was sitting on.

"You are aware Saturn tried to usurp Olympus just past summer?" Frank nodded. The stories of Jason, siege of Othrys and the war were still fresh in Camp Jupiter. "The thing is, his children had scattered him in such a way during the first Titanomachy, he could not have risen in his true form – so after several unsuccessful attempts of regaining body, he took possession of a boy named Luke Castellan."

Hazel gasped, and Frank bit the inside of his cheek.

"The cincher in the situation, of course," Alcyoneus smirked, "was that Persephone Jackson was in love with the boy, while being on the opposite side of the war. She had actually been a war prisoner at one point – and that's why she's like this right now. Her former temptation – and weakness – has come back to test her. Mother truly loves irony."

That sealed it for Frank. He was _not_ going to let this arrogant piece of dirt live any longer than necessary. No one, _no one_ got to hurt his best friend on his watch. No one. Not even they themselves.

 _Unseen by the fighters, Thanatos leaned back and fixed his pitch-black eyes on the girl encased in the protective field. He needed to see this phenomenon and report it back to his Lord. He will be very interested to know about this._

* * *

Just like the prophecy had told them, Frank had used his firewood-flame to melt Death's chains and set it free. He and Hazel tag-teamed Alcyoneus to literally bury him under the avalanche Hazel caused after he dragged him over the border of Alaska. Sephie came face-to-face with the demons of her muddled past, which finally began to clear up thanks to Frank obtaining Gorgon's blood and the temptation she had to face.

"I remember most of my past," Sephie sighed, watching as the sun rose from behind the hills after the fierce battle with Polybotes. Frank and Hazel squished her between them for support. "I left a lot of people behind."

"You didn't want to, and that's the important part," Hazel leaned her head on her shoulder. "Trust me, I know the feeling."

Sephie nodded but did not comment anything else. Frank patted her on the back, wishing he could help her like she had helped him gain confidence in himself and his decisions.

"You know, Frank," Sephie suddenly said, a soft smile appearing on her face. "You remind me a lot of Jason."

"You met Jason?" Frank blinked, and Hazel straightened.

"I think he was doing air recon of Othrys while I was escaping that place," Sephie said, a faraway look in her eyes. "I spoke with him for like, thirty seconds, tops, but he reminds me a lot of you, just with more 'I'm son of THE big guy here' vibe. Reliable, warm… bit of a stuck-up."

Hazel giggled, and Frank couldn't find it in himself to really be annoyed with Sephie's teasing.

"So, he's as much of a dork as Frank is?" Hazel poked Frank a little bit, grinning.

"Hey!" Frank complained, mock-frowning at his girlfriend and best friend. "What's this, make fun of Frank day?"

"Do we even need to set a day for that to happen?" Sephie retorted, and the trio started pushing and horsing around, mocking each other and calling names in good spirit. Frank was still curious, though. Sephie refused to elaborate on Luke Castellan's role in her life, and just why her eyes had switched colors while she was facing her test.

But Frank decided not to press… for now. After all, Sephie had mentioned several people she was close to, and Frank was sure he could get out enough details out of them to piece together the whole story.

After all, he wasn't afraid to ask her the difficult questions – but since she didn't want to answer, he'll have to do it the hard way.


	8. An update after a whole year of silence

**Hello everyone, all 660 favorites and 829 followers of mine, and those of you who just keep a casual lookout for Heroine of Silver Age!**

 **As I've posted on my profile, I'm back in Percy Jackson fandom after being absent for over a year - I must admit, I didn't go through my backlog of reviews just yet, but the PMs you lot sent me (you know who you are) were simultaneously adorable and scary. You guys really missed me, my crazy fic ideas and Sephie, huh?**

 **Good news is: I'm back!**

 **Bad news: This and Aurora Thunderbolt will likely be my final fanfics for a while. I've had a stressful year, I've been writing a lot of original work which I'm currently polishing and getting ready for a shop-around with literary agents (or self-publish, that option is also open), so I'll be going for finishing Heroine as fast as can. Now, no worries, this is getting a proper ending - we will walk through Mark of Athena, House of Hades and Blood of Olympus overall plots - but I'll be recreating parts of them because honestly, HOO was a hot mess that somehow ended up okay. How? I have no idea, but I have my own ideas what I want to do, just a fair warning**

 **The proper update will be coming out either this weekend or around next Tuesday/Wednesday, so be patient just a bit more!**

 **.**

 **.**

 **P.S. Before anyone starts pelting me with questions about my original work, no, it's not based on this or any of my other AU fics despite being also being inspired by Greek Mythology. I may have to put this profile on permanent hiatus if I manage to get published, but I'm not taking off any of the fics I posted here without prior warning to you (this may not ever happen, agent/publisher hunting is a daunting challenge, but just so you could be warned ahead of time).**


	9. Unseen One's musings

**Hi, here I am, just like I promised! It's just past midnight in my timezone, and I'm running on pure adrenaline, water and chocolate-infused sticks, but it was worth it - the chapter is done! It fought me in the beginning, but with the CoVID-19 threat forcing my country to close down all schools, unis and even in one county all cafes and like for the next two weeks minimum, I suddenly had a lot of free time since I don't have so many RL duties and I wrestled it into submission. Sorry for any inconsistencies with the characterization that may have crept up: I've given my best to keep things in line with my previous works, but I've grown up both as a person and as writer, so some things might've changed.**

 **Thank you for the well wishes for the original work (special thanks to Cloud Dreamer 313, Petra Arcadia, Eyir-Allmight and RandomBlondeChick), to 30+ reviews asking for the update (fudgefight's, BlueIvy's and ChocolateLife's first come to mind, but don't worry, I read all of them), and I'm insanely happy you guys are still paying so much attention and checking HoSA! I won't be talking a lot about my original work here - I'll be updating my profile as things get more clear to not bog down this story with unrelated material, but at this point I can reveal that the book is centering around the modern re-imagination of Andromeda and Perseus myth, but Andromeda and her sacrifice are far more important that the romance/quest part... and there's a lot of cameos from gods. And constellations play a big role.**

 **Okay, that's enough about non-PJO related stuff: Lord Hades is being rather impatient right now to tell his own part of the story, and I'd rather not incur his wrath...**

* * *

"My lord."

Hades lifted his head up from the pile of paper he was currently wrestling with – the budget for the drinks the newly established task force wanted to stay happy while not being drunk out of their minds when they were needed – and saw Luke Castellan hovering at the doors, sword out but with no perspiration that would indicate he had come from a training session. Putting down his fountain pen and pushing away the stack of files, he motioned for the half-blood to come in and sit, feeling exhaustion in every pore of his being; Thanatos being chained really heaped up the pressure on him, and he had to grab every chance he had to get a little break.

"Come in."

"Oh no, I have to go back to training the grunts," Luke shook his head, and Hades spotted a small smile on his face that quickly vanished after the god looked at him. "I was just escorting your guest."

"Guest?" Hades narrowed his eye at the demigod. He had learned to tolerate certain levels of insolence from demigods thanks to Sephie's foot-in-the-mouth syndrome, but Luke's caginess was starting to approach the territory where Hades would have to… react to get him to spit it out.

"My lord, I'm back."

"Oh thank Mother Rhea," Hades stood up with a speed that surprised even him, and tears threatened to surface in his eyes as he laid his eyes on his right hand for the first time in the past six months. "I hope you're ready to get to work right away – you've been slacking."

"Only if a good bottle of Dionysus' is waiting for me after we finish the primary cleanup," Thanatos answered with a bow of the head and a tiny smile as he whipped out his smartphone, black wings fluttering and chilling the room to the morgue temperature. "I suppose you're already aware of Persephone Jackson's whereabouts?"

"I am, her lover took it on himself to inform me," Hades said, spying Castellan not leaving just yet – probably trying to catch up on Sephie news, he thought to himself with no small amount of amusement.

The whole mess around her disappearance (and from what he last heard via Poseidon and Hestia's letters and Hermes' stories, Hera was still recovering in the infirmary from the explosive argument that took place the day Poseidon went to issue the quest to Camp Jupiter) had unearthed all their soft spots; however, instead of dividing them, it managed to unite them in a way only war used to, before. In fact, it went way past just uniting them – it gave them something to yearn for apart for victory, and it showed.

Argo II had been constructed in record time, partly because Camp Half-Blood worked around the clock and partly because Zeus gave into the pressure of his family begging for giving their children help to get Sephie back quicker. Those who fell during Battle for Olympus galvanized other fighters into joining Hades' task force that had been helping him contain the mess with the souls and S-class threats from Tartarus, as one of the fighters named Titans, Cetus and other nasty things Hades kept contained – sadly he couldn't do anything about the lower level monsters, but those demigods usually could deal with on their own or in pairs, so he didn't feel too guilty.

"What shall I do about those who died while I was out of commission?" Thanatos said with a drawl, scrolling through the list, and Hades winced when he spied the number. This was going to take a while.

"Our current priority is returning those that escaped," Hades ordered, slipping back into the proper mindset of the ruler. He couldn't do much, but lack of the formerly dead enemies to Olympus was something he could ensure to make Sephie's new journey smoother. "Doors of Death are the secondary until we manage to stabilize things completely here – besides, demigods are equipped to deal with monsters."

 _Not so much with the undead and dead_ , was the silent follow-up, and Thanatos sketched a little bow in the recognition of his orders and disappeared in a shower of black feathers and shadows that for a moment threatened to overwhelm all sources of light in the room. Hades sighed and shook his head at the theatrics, but decided against scolding Thanatos – the man had been chained for the last six months, he may as well let him have his fun now that he was free and ready to do his job again. Turning back to his pile of paperwork, he spotted Castellan still hovering at the doors, and frowned.

"Do you not have drills to return to, Castellan?"

"I have," the boy shifted in the place, twirled the sword he was holding and rubbed the back of his head before squaring his shoulders and lifting up head. Interesting – he was very, very nervous, and now Hades wanted to know exactly what was going on in his head. "I know this is an outrageous request, but… could I visit Sephie?"

Hades paused, crossed his arms and took a good look of the demigod. He was right; the request was outrageous, and if the circumstances were even near approximately normal he would've refused. Dead and living were separated for a good reason, and as the god presiding over the departed he was not allowed to bend the rules (not that he would, he knew the price of breaking that rule).

However, the circumstances were not normal in the slightest, and Hades needed time to think it over. Saying yes would create a dangerous precedent, but he would also like a more hands-on report about Sephie's condition.

"Come visit me after the night council is done," Hades told the demigod, referring to the daily council sessions that Niccolo had suggested his father implement for the crises such as these. "I'll have your answer by then."

"Thank you, Lord Hades," Luke nodded and walked off, leaving Hades to wrestle with the reports and prepare for the said council – 'preparing' being an euphemism for drinking enough to make it through without blasting any of his helpers to stardust, yet still not enough to let them kill each other off.

It was a delicate balance, that one, and Hades was proud he managed to fit the optimal range in only three tries. He didn't regret making the council, not at all, but some level of inebriation when dealing with people like Achilles, Hector, Castellan, Mellinoe, Hecate and Hypnos was just necessary.

* * *

The night time snuck up on the Lord of the Dead before long; between the endless reading, signing, calculations and goblets of diluted wine and plates of snacks his maids brought in the regular intervals, hours had disappeared, and the night council was about to start. Sighing, Hades took up the neat manila folder and walked to the throne room, where the last of the workers were bringing in refreshments and food and removing all breakable and delicate objects – he had learned the easy way never to keep anything breakable in the room filled with easily-angered people. Hera still gave Poseidon and Athena a stink eye for breaking Thetis and Oceanus' wedding gift, a delicately spun glass amphora decorated with pearls, in the middle of one of their arguments just after Athena won the patronship, even after Hephaestus fixed it with liquid gold and made it even more beautiful.

"My lord," Hector, the only one to always arrive on time, disengaged himself from a staring contest he was having with Castellan – over what, Hades would not ask, he'd have to sit through the retelling anyways once the council started – and fell on the knee. Castellan followed with a shallow bow.

"Hector, Castellan," Hades nodded and flicked his wrist to let them know they should stand up. "Where is everyone else?"

"Melinoe and Zagreus sent messengers earlier – the entrance of the Pit again showed signs of activity, so they said they might be a little late," Castellan reported shortly, a frown etched on his face, no doubt reminded of what happened last time when the Pit's entrance acted up.

"Lord Hypnos joined Lord Thanatos," Hector folded his arms behind his back and straightened his back. "Lord Morpheus, the Furies and Lord Orcus are still busy with containing the borders, so they'll only be coming in briefly to report, and Lady Hecate is still on Olympus."

"Nico hasn't reported in, though," Castellan's frown deepened, and Hades' heart gained a lead weight. "He had informed us of the Camp Jupiter sending a quest to Alaska, and they must've returned safely because Bob spotted both Polybotes and Alcyoneus in the Pit, but he hadn't sent a message since the start of the quest."

"Nothing at all?" Achilles walked into the room, sweat clinging to his brow and sand and dirt plastered over his biceps and thighs. His sword was mercifully put into the sheath at the hip, but from his looks and heavy breathing Hades knew he had rushed off the training grounds once he noticed how late it was and didn't bother to even jump in one of the nearby pools to wash off. "That's indeed strange – the boy does not seem to be the type to miss the check-ins."

"He's not," Hades agreed with him, all the possible scenarios replaying in his head. What could've happened to his son? Watching Hazel, his Roman daughter, was a relatively low-risk mission, even with the historical hostilities between Greeks and Romans factored in, so what had gone wrong?

Sending out Castellan to visit Sephie was looking more and more tantalizing by the minute – this lack of information was leaving him in a state of mind that he did not like and from which he could not rule properly, and that _absolutely couldn't happen._ Olympus relied on Underworld to keep its affairs in order right now.

A shimmer of dreamy silver light and inky darkness alerted the god of Melinoe and Zagreus' arrival, which was enough to complete quorum for the council and signal its start.

The goddess of ghosts and the god of rebirths looked terrible, Hades thought as he pushed his own nectar jug towards the pair: Melinoe's hair was in total disarray which she never normally allowed, Zagreus' armor was scratched and was splattered with both golden dust and ichor, and they both had hunted looks in their eyes. The dead heroes settled on the other side of the table, also looking quite unnerved by the immortals' appearance – Hector's jaw shook from how hard he fought to keep his mouth shut, Achilles' motions were much slower than usual, and Castellan's eyes had the similar quality Zagreus' and Melinoe's had.

"Son, daughter, what is it?" Hades prompted them after they took a good swing out of the jug and leaned back in their seats, their normal glow returning in slow and tiny increments. "What happened at the pit?"

"Horrible things, Father," Zagreus was the first one to open his mouth, sounding tired and worn out. "For some reason, Pit had acted out for a short time, and every single monster and immortal that was in the vicinity had their powers strengthened. Perses even managed to nearly escape Athena's seal – if Iapetus and Meli weren't there to distract him..."

"Don't call me Meli, it sounds juvenile," Melinoe complained half-heartedly as she took a doughnut-sized piece of ambrosia and scarfed it down without any apology. Hades felt his eyes go wide as he processed Zagreus' information and the sight of Melinoe's strange behavior. What had happened? "But yes, what brother had said is essentially true. Something happened that got everyone going for a hot second, but then it faded."

"After nearly half an hour," Zagreus muttered with a cross expression.

"That is bad," Hades worried his lower lip before leaning forward to the dead heroes. "Did anything happen at your end – this might take a while, so we should clear everything up beforehand."

"Nothing too much," Hector said with a pinched expression. "Lucas and I had a disagreement over some of the training exercises, but everything else ran smoothly."

Oh, so that was what the two were glaring daggers at each other over – nothing major, and Hades would usually hear it out for the sake of posterity and fairness, but right now they had much, much bigger fish to fry.

"Very well," Hades nodded, and after Achilles didn't pitch in, he returned the conversation back to the unexplained power surge in the Pit.

* * *

"Have you decided, my Lord?" Castellan asked after everyone cleared out, not raising from his seat, which was only one seat away from being directly opposite Hades (the one reserved for Nico).

"Yes, I have," Hades nodded, twisting the obsidian ring on his ring as he mentally put together all he wanted to say into a coherent structure. "You will be allowed out, but with a condition."

"Condition?" Castellan leaned forward, eyes glinting. "Should I be worried?"

"No, unless you plan to, as Sephie so charmingly puts it, ditch the Underworld," Hades put the air-quotes around the words, and was rewarded with Castellan's bright laughter for his effort. "I only want you to bring her here."

"Like, here, here? How would that work?" Castellan leaned back, placing the hand under his chin and leaning on it. "She's still of the living, so she'd have to cross through either Orpheus' Door or go through Charon, which is a bad idea right now."

"I'm still a god, Castellan," Hades said, feeling rather amused at the demigod's line of thought. "This is my domain – do you think I can't simply shadow-warp you and Sephie here if I truly wished it?"

"I – oh, I'm sorry," Castellan chuckled, cheeks flushing until they achieved a clear, dark rose tone to the sun-kissed tan. "I sometimes forget about it."

"Transitioning between mortal and immortal perceptions can be difficult," Hades said softly, taking out an envelope with a short letter for Sephie and sliding it over to son of Hermes. "This will be your way back – just tear up the note inside and you'll both be back here."

"Okay," Castellan stood up, and Hades whistled for the shadows to take him as close as they could to Sephie.

Once left alone, Hades took out the stack of the envelopes he had preserved with a little spell he had innocently begged off Hecate – all the old letters he and Sephie had exchanged in the past five years since they'd first met. It felt almost unreal to see Sephie's twelve-year-old just-starting-to-learn Greek with far more elegant calligraphy of the later years, sometimes dotted with poetic phrases she had picked from other books or dry, sarcastic commentary on certain reads she had to swallow – he'll never forget her assessment of one of biggest classics, Anna Karenina.

 _That book would be way more interesting if any other female character was the lead, Anna was the worst,_ Sephie wrote in the letter titled 20th of November of the last year. _Seriously, the guy wasted 800 pages and three weeks of my patience for her to just throw herself under the train after realizing what kind of mess she got herself into in the first place? Gimme Kitty-centric story any day, not this… Argh! Uncle Hades, I can't stand this unnecessary drama – I have it enough in our family, why do I have to read it too?_

 _It's a classic_ , Hades remembered penning down the answer after reading the comment to Tolstoy, the original author and receiving a full ten-minute rant about youngsters not appreciating what he wanted to say before storming off to Elysium. _Sometimes you have to read things you don't like to learn about things you'd otherwise never know anything about._

The letter had never gotten a reply, since Sephie had disappeared afterwards, but Hades had hung onto the letter like all others and re-read them in spare time, if only to reassure himself she was real in lieu of being able to reach her in person.

"- Luke!"

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger!"

The loud voices from the doors leading to the courtyard in front of his throne room alerted him to the incoming visitors; hastily shoving the letters into the folds of his _chiton_ where Persephone had kindly sewn him a pocket centuries ago to store things he didn't want to lose, but wouldn't send away for the hassle of later retrieval. Seconds later the ornate obsidian doors flew inwards, undoubtedly kicked down by the enraged demigoddess – her temper wasn't normally explosive, but Hades had witnessed a few of her blow-ups, and kicked-down doors were nothing unusual.

"Welcome back, Sephie," Hades smiled at his niece, a small part of the lead weight disappearing from his heart as he took in the fact she seemed hale and healthy, apart from the steam he could all but see coming out of her ears.

"Hello, Uncle Hades," she spoke, still observing common courtesy to bow – so the anger wasn't too bad. "Sorry for kicking the door open, but in the past week I've met too many immortals and people _who should've stayed dead,_ " here she threw a nasty look at Castellan, who only raised his arms in an universal signal of surrender. "I needed an outlet."

"If you actually manage to damage obsidian, my dear, I'll toast you," Hades shook his head and strode over to daughter of Poseidon, scooping her into a hug. "You worried us greatly, Princess."

"Don't call me that," came the half-hearted response as the girl in question as she hugged Hades back with equal fervor and held, not willing to let go. "I just got my full memories back, but I still missed you too, Uncle. Weird – I didn't know we were close, but somehow, I still felt it."

"I know," Hades murmured into her shoulder, slow to release Sephie. "I understand. I heard Grace boy had his memories almost completely wiped: you?"

"I got a whole lot of jumbled nothing – Luke's and Grandpa's eyes, flashes of Olympus, yours and Dad's palaces, some memories of Hermes," Sephie recounted with a wry smile, and behind her Hades noticed Castellan look at the floor. "It was worse than not knowing anything, honestly."

Hades could imagine the feeling. Knowing there was something beyond what you could remember, seeing the flashes, and yet not being able to see the complete picture: not a bad torture, he had to admit. Mentally recording it for later usage when he fell into one of his moods (he never ran out of creative punishments for kidnappers, child-groomers and brain-washers with not so pure intentions, but they rarely managed to match up the crime, so this was a good new strategy to try out), he allowed himself to grin sadistically.

"You know, Hera was heavily punished after that little stint she pulled with you and Jason," he informed his niece, who froze for a moment before revealing her own set of teeth.

"Hey, Luke, do you have anything to do right now? I think Uncle has a story for us."

Castellan's head snapped right back up, eyes wide as he looked at Hades for permission. Hades opted to say nothing, only tilt his head and turn around to lead them to the living room, where they'd be more comfortable. All ill will he held for the boy had long since disappeared; between his sacrifice and the time the two spent working together in the past six months, Hades had let go of everything. Sephie had forgiven him by the looks of things, and he had shown himself to be valuable asset – why not let him listen to a story that would amuse him as much as it would Sephie?


	10. Daughter of Wisdom Walks (Never Alone)

**Okay, before we begin, a quick note.**

 **This chapter almost didn't happen today. Why? Earthquake. For those blissfully unaware, the city I study in was hit today/yesterday by three consecutive earthquakes in a span of an hour, of 5.5, 5.1 and 3.4 Richter scale magnitude. Lucky me, I left the city and returned to my hometown (which is miles away) the day prior, so I avoided the mess, but the move and subsequent fretting and being glued to Internet, chat groups and TV left very little time to write. However, I did promise I'd stick to my schedule, so I'm here, uploading at the dead of the night, because I'm a writer, and I know how elated I feel when my favorite authors put out good work despite their situations.**

 **Now, on the more light-hearted side, I realized I haven't once talked in Annabeth's POV! "You're family, aren't you?" has an excuse of being nearly entirely written in Hades' POV, but to make a fallacy like this here... well, I do suppose I didn't have a good idea of how would Annabeth interact with a fellow girl. No offense to our Uncle Rick, but Annabeth literally had no connection with any girl shown, only told about by Thalia and Annabeth in their monologue retrospection, and some small inroads made with Reyna. So, I'm correcting this oversight on both Rick's and my side, and delivering you an entire chapter's worth of Annabeth Chase!**

 **Thank you for all the positive reviews (all of them warmed my heart), but there were a few questions raised.**

 **Petra Arcadia: You know, I had thought about crossposting to AO3, but most of the fandom is here, and this is the site I started fanficcing on... I'll definitely think of uploading things on Archive as well! Also, Anna Karenina opinion... I may or may have not thought this about he book when I first read it lol (then again I was a precocious fifteen year old then... re-reading it at age seventeen definitely gave me a new perspective)**

 **Guest: I won't be removing AN just yet - it'll create a mess with posting reviews for registered users :( It had happened before, and I don't want you guys to lose your ability to review. After I'm done with HoSA, I'm definitely removing it, but not until then.**

 **Cloud Dreamer 313: Hey, I love my cliffies ;)**

 **RGAfl: I will be writing in certain flashbacks, but demigods are still the ones with the quest, so I kinda need to give them priority ;D But fret not, you will hear more about Hermes' and Sephie's love story!**

 **Now... let's move on, Annabeth wants to talk! Fair warning, this is the part where 'significant deviation from canon' tag I kept talking about comes into play...**

* * *

Annabeth had to give it to Romans: they knew how to build. Like, properly build, not just put things together, add pretty ending touches and call it a day. No, she wasn't shading intentionally, she was just making an observation.

"Do you like our city?" Reyna, daughter of Bellona and one of the Camp Jupiter's praetors asked her with a little smile as she purposefully directed her to the temple of Ares – Mars, Annabeth corrected herself with a grimace as she recalled the difference between the Greeks and Romans in their view of the gods.

Her own mother was almost unrecognizable in her fury and misery, and not for the first time Annabeth wished she hadn't met her. She supposed things could've always gone worse: only being given a quest to find Athena Parthenon and not being outright disowned like Athena – or was it Minerva? - had threatened her with was definitely a positive part, which said a lot.

"Oh, yes, I do," Annabeth said, studying the decorations and noting for the seemingly pointless friezes cleverly hid spikes and other defensive fortifications - fitting for a god of homeland and warfare Mars had become. "I helped with reconstruction of Olympus after the Titan War, and all new ideas are welcome."

"Really?" Reyna hummed, glancing at her automaton dogs Aurum and Argentum – gifts from the lord of the blacksmiths for Lady Bellona himself, if the legends were to be believed, and capable of discerning truth and lies according to Jason. Annabeth would be insulted by the implication, but it wasn't like her story was very believable, even for a demigod standard. "Well then, I will show you all the best places in New Rome for an architect to marvel over."

"Please," Annabeth grinned at the prospect – it was getting a little too stuffy and awkward with everyone staring at each other, and Annabeth wasn't above avoiding the problems if it kept things peaceful after all; the fact she had learned the hard way back when she was thirteen. "I need more ideas."

"Of course," Reyna ushered her towards the gardens with the lush greenery and pretty fountains. "You know, this is something a child of Minerva would be, if they even existed – an architect, an artist."

Ah yes, the differences again. Annabeth bit her lip to not say anything in defense of her mother. They had already gone over how was she even possible – not that Octavian believed her, but he had to cave under Sephie's and Reyna combined death glares – and hearing she would only be valued for her imagination in the fields of art rankled.

She was a daughter of a war goddess, the thinker of plans and strategist of Olympus, not an artisan: she chose architecture because _she_ liked it, not because it was expected of her for being Athena's daughter. Her siblings and she were free to pursue whatever caught their fancy and occupied their minds because it was their wish, and for the umpteenth time she wished Romans were a bit more flexible when it came to the demigods' roles in the Camp.

She would die if she was only relegated to being an artist; she had already heard how certain children chafed under the strain of their birth legacy, and it boiled her blood. So what if one child of Neptune caused an earthquake; how did it become Sephie's fault? If one child of Pluto had caused World War II, what logic would lay the blame on Hazel's, Nico's and Bianca's shoulders?

Blood did not make a family, as Luke had proven her.

"I see," Annabeth said after a few seconds. "Do I offend you?"

"No, not at all," Reyna shook her head and sat at the marble bench that was entirely overshadowed by the grapevines. "We did meet after all, and I'd never underestimate anyone who managed to trick Circe."

 _They met?_

Annabeth's mind short-circuited for a moment before the eyes and the accent clicked in. Circe's island attendant who had followed her around!

"Wait, that was you?" Annabeth took a good look of the other girl. She could see the resemblance, and granted she had also looked way different after Circe had her all decked in makeup, jewelry and fancy clothes, so she could explain to herself why she didn't recognize Reyna.

 _Next time,_ she vowed to herself, _I'll look at everyone closely to avoid this type of situation._

 _This is just embarrassing._

"It's alright," Reyna shrugged and patted the seat next to herself. "We were both very young back then. I only remembered you because you claimed to be daughter of Athena, and we've seen a fair share of sons and daughters of Athena there."

"You did?" Annabeth sat down, curiosity truly and well piqued. "Could you tell me about it?"

"Only if you have a story in return for me," Reyna's lips thinned, and Annabeth tensed. "Tell me about Luke Castellan."

"What?"

Annabeth did not want to sound this rude, but Reyna's request took her off guard. How did she even know Luke's name? Had he been recruiting from Roman side as well during the war? Sephie had never talked about her time on Mount Othrys, but Annabeth was sure she would've at least told them about Romans' existence...

"Let's just say his name came up a few times from various sources, and I want to know the story," Reyna's eyes were narrow, and Annabeth cursed inwardly.

What had he done now? What should she say?

Should she say anything at all?

Or keep quiet?

"Luke is… a difficult subject for everyone," she hedged, thinking up a million ways and reasons for the question and how to avoid it. "I'd really have to know what you know and why you want to know -"

"No need," Reyna waved her hand dismissively, the eyes not losing their dangerous look. "You've already told me enough. It'd explain Sephie's reaction and why he didn't react."

"He?" Annabeth asked, but before Reyna could answer, a loud shouting came from down the street, at the same place where they'd left Greek envoy and Roman welcoming party.

 _What in the Tartarus is going on right now?_

* * *

"What do you mean, you lost her?"

Annabeth was having a real hard time controlling her own anger after everything that had been said in the last half an hour, and Leo cowered before it, eyes shifting away and hands working overtime on one of his toys. Octavian, on the other hands, locked her eyes with her in a show of defiance, and Annabeth just let herself stare at him some more, calling in all her raw anger she could recall from the Second Titanomachy, until he also dropped his gaze.

"Annabeth, they're not at fault," Jason tried to intercede, but Annabeth was not having of it; nailing son of Jupiter with a burning glare as well, she repeated her question.

"What. Do. You. Mean. You. Lost. Her."

"She was there one moment," Leo mumbled, scratching the back of his head, "and then gone the next. I swear, I only turned away for one second to show Teddy Bear-guy the controls for the Argo II."

"Leonard is telling the truth," Octavian's face twisted into a grimace as he spoke. "She had come onboard to see if she could sense anything off about the ship, turned around the corner and disappeared into the shadows."

"Disappeared… into the shadows," Annabeth repeated, mildly but still feeling furious. "She's no child of Hades – sorry, Pluto - to be able to shadow-travel."

"What about my brother?" Hazel Levesque, one of new friends Sephie had made (of course she'd befriend a child of Big Three, Annabeth though cynically – Sephie and Thalia became super close in matter of months, and Nico and Bianca all but hung off her sleeves at the beginning) said, wringing her hands. "He could take her through shadows."

"It is a possibility," Annabeth allowed it. "Lord Hades – Pluto – does like her a lot, and Nico has been a glorified messenger boy for him recently."

"Like her?" Reyna crossed her arms. "As in..."

"Tartarus no," Annabeth shook her head, feeling slightly nauseous at the thought. She had been on Nico's birthday in the Underworld, and nothing in their interactions lead her to that conclusion. "One, Lady Persephone would've raised hell, and two, she's very much taken."

"Don't I know it," Jason groaned, hand going for the throat. "Lord Mer-Her-Mercury," he settled finally on the name with a pained look on his face, "made things very clear last year."

The Roman side looked pretty taken aback at the implication; Octavian in particular gaped like a fish, which made Annabeth's day a little better. Curiously, Hazel and Frank were not surprised at all: they either got Sephie to talk or she freely gave them the information. While Annabeth would like to believe it was the first option, it was far more likely Sephie just spilled her guts at some point – she _loved_ gushing about Hermes and their dates, Annabeth recalled with a pained grimace.

She had to have heard the story about their first coffee date at least a half dozen times by now, and chances were she'll hear it a half dozen times more by the end of the year.

Damn Sephie and her oversharing when she was excited.

"Yes, well, the point is, she and her uncle are on pretty good terms," Annabeth returned the conversation to its start. "However, she never leaves anywhere with immortals or demigods without leaving a note behind."

Half of the reason Camp Half-Blood freaked out as much as they did when she disappeared was the lack of any notes and evidence of any kind, and knowing on how many hit lists she was on. Thalia, Nico, Grover and Annabeth had all ganged up on her after the Titan War and forced a promise out of her to leave notes whenever she left for any kind of outing with Hermes or a demigod, just so that they could track her last known contact in the case she disappeared.

"Wait, there's a note!" Piper yelped, the only one who had dared to skirt around Annabeth to check out the corner Octavian had pointed out as the last place he had seen Sephie at. "It says: _Gone to see Uncle H. C took me. Check on A. See you soon, love you ton. J._ "

Annabeth let the breath whoosh out of her lungs. Sephie was fine, left of her own volition, and will return soon – all the key phrases and shortenings were used. Though, who was C, and why did they take her instead of Nico? Why did she direct them to check on Nico?

"She's okay?" Frank, who had been silent for the most part, spoke up.

"Yeah," Annabeth nodded, and at seeing everyone's confounded expressions, explained the code. "If she used initials for everyone and her own surname, it means she left voluntarily, with someone she trusted enough to bring her from one location to other. Plus, she used 'see you soon, love you ton' - that in on itself says she expects to be back soon, and that we should not worry about her. Uncle H is Lord Hades, obviously, and A is Nico, for Nico Di Angelo."

"We should check on my brother?" Hazel blinked.

"Who is this C?" Octavian demanded at the same time.

"I… I don't know," Annabeth was just as lost as everyone else on the identity of C. "She never used that shortening before."

There was no one who could've taken Sephie, unless Hades fathered another child secretly or a child of another Underworld deity like Thanatos showed up.

However, there was someone Sephie knew whose surname started with C…

"And Luke Castellan?" Piper voiced Annabeth's thoughts.

"He's dead," Jason instantly pointed out the flaw in the logic.

"What if Lord Pluto sent him?" Frank was definitely warming up to the idea, as did most of the people around her, Annabeth noticed. The only skeptic remained Hazel – not unexpected, seeing who her father was.

"I doubt my father would use someone's soul like that," Hazel said the exact thing that had been on Annabeth's mind when she considered Luke. "The risk of the soul running away is too great, and Lord Letum is already busy enough."

Le- ah, yes, Thanatos.

"Besides, Luke had said he was shooting for Isles of Blessed, meaning he would be in line for rebirth," Annabeth revealed to everyone. This little detail only Thalia, Annabeth and Sephie knew up until now, and it was a pretty solid guarantee none of them would ever see him again, not even Thalia, due to Lethe's work. "That'd be a second reason for him not to leave Underworld."

"Actually, you'd be wrong for once, Annie."

A hauntingly familiar male voice spoke into Annabeth's ear, and she couldn't help but screech and jump away.

" _LUKE?!_ "

"Hey, Annie," Luke grinned boyishly at her, Sephie waving to her from where she was holding onto Luke's shoulder.

He hadn't changed at all from the last time Annabeth had seen him in Camp half-Blood at nineteen years old: the thick scar, wavy blonde hair that was dancing the tightrope divide between an unholy disaster and artfully messy, camp necklace, shirt and khakis, even his old sword he had used before getting Backbiter.

He was also pale as… well, as a ghost.

"Hey, Anna," Sephie bowed her head. "Sorry for disappearing on you, but Uncle really needed me."

"We found your message," Piper waved the paper, talking over Annabeth's shoulder and letting Annabeth gather her wits.

"Didn't you say - ?"

"Situation changed," Luke shrugged as Sephie walked away to talk and made her apologies with everyone else, leaving Annabeth alone with Luke. "I'll go for a dip in Lethe, just not right now."

"You're not… you reached Elysium?" Annabeth couldn't help but worry, tugging on the strand of her blonde hair.

"Streamlined, like everyone else who died that day," Luke said with a smile. "Hades didn't want to clog the lines, so only those who did something dishonorable in battle, like stabbed their enemy or comrade in the back, got judged properly by the judges."

Annabeth sighed, heart feeling a lot lighter.

"Speaking of which, I have to go back," Luke grimaced as he checked the time on his watch. "It's currently nighttime in Underworld, and I have a night shift not even urgent delivery for Hades can get me out of – Perseus is a right tightass, doesn't accept any excuses."

Before Annabeth could say anything, Luke flipped a coin he had hidden in his sleeve, and disappeared.

* * *

Somewhere between Sephie getting back and Luke disappearing, someone had said something to offend someone (Annabeth had long since lost the thread of who said what, particularly with Leo's rambling and Jason's inserts every ten seconds), but in the end it didn't really matter.

What mattered was the fact everyone who had come onboard Argo II were imprisoned at the moment, and had no way of getting out.

"Could you just shut up?" she hissed at Jason, who grew as red as a tomato and instantly stopped talking. "We need a plan of getting out."

"The bars are designed to be unbreakable," Jason instantly told them, looking a little sheepish. "And the only key should be with Reyna."

"What about blasting our way out?" Leo suggested, pinching the hem of his camp shirt. "I mean, I could probably rig up an explosive with the materials here - "

"No explosives!" Piper barked before Annabeth had to do so, and whacked son of Hephaestus over the head. "Do you want to kill us in the collapse of the building?"

"Well, if you place the explosive at just the right place and have just enough power, you could theoretically create an explosion - "

"You don't have the materials for such explosion here," Annabeth nipped the idea completely in the bud, staring Leo down. "I know what explosive you're talking about, and you can't exactly control its radius, plus it'll take too long to make it."

"True," Leo sulked, letting go of the idea but still looking eager to contribute. "What if I use my fire to melt the bars? It should work!"

"I don't know," Jason shrugged at the questioning looks. "I don't think they ever tested it against Hephaestus' children's fire."

"I say we try it!" Leo jumped up, but before he could approach the bars to try melting them, a clanking noise echoed from just outside their line of sight. Annabeth and Jason also rose up, while Piper only got partway up, half-crouching and hand on the base of her throat – a little projecting trick Annabeth remembered Silena teaching her siblings.

A dull thump came soon after the clanking sound, and then a clinking and footsteps came over, revealing Hazel's sweat-shining dark-skinned forehead. She was carrying a set of keys, had no shoes on and had a shallow cut on her cheek as if she had gotten in a fistfight.

She likely did, to get to them, Annabeth realized.

"Hazel!" Leo whisper-shouted, waving to her. "Came to get awesome Leo McShizzle Valdez out?"

"I've come to get you all out," Hazel spoke quietly as she picked out on key and tried it, finding that it didn't fit and chose another. "Sephie and Reyna are under fire in Senate, and Frank's freshly off _probatio_ – I was the only one who could get you out without people immediately stopping me when I tried getting inside."

"They still tried to," Annabeth said, touching her own cheek to tell the other girl she had an injury there. Hazel frowned, went over the weeping wound with her finger, and continued fiddling with the keys.

"Not too bad," she finally declared after seeing the amount of blood on her fingertips, and whooped as she finally managed to locate the right key. "Come on, we don't have a lot of time to get out."

"What about Reyna and Sephie and everyone else?" Jason asked as he helped Piper stand up completely and climbed up last, giving Leo and Piper both a leg up before flying himself out.

"Sephie will catch up with us, she said so," Hazel murmured as she tiptoed around the knocked out guards, leading them through the dark corridors. "Reyna will have to stay, and Frank is coming too."

"Senate had made a decision?" Jason sounded alarmed, and Annabeth's spine stiffened.

"It will, any minute," Hazel confirmed in a dark tone. "That's why we need to get out now."

"Uh, some explanation, or context, or anything?" Leo butted in, saving Annabeth's breath from asking the same question.

"Senate never manages to make decisions swiftly," Jason explained as they hurried down the passageway, blindly trusting Hazel to lead them. "They love arguing, it's what they live for – everything needs to be rehashed and then re-rehashed before making a decision. The only time they arrive at quick decision is when they acknowledge there's a war ahead, and if we don't get out before they open the temple of Janus, we'll be screwed."

Annabeth went through her mental library of Roman-oriented knowledge. Janus was Roman-only god, even if he was also recognized by Greeks later on; the god of beginnings and endings, the two-faced god of choices and doorways, some mortal authors speculated he was an aspect of Saturn, kinder and ore forgiving version of Kronos. However, he wasn't just a god of choices: he guarded doorways, and according to Virgil's Aeneid, opening the doors of Janus' temple -

Annabeth shivered as she connected the dots and wished she could chain-curse out loud without any repercussions.

According to Virgil's Aeneid, opening the doors of Janus' temple would signal the start of the war. Juno – Hera, whatever, she was still the cow bitch – had done it in Aeneid, as she tried to wipe out Aeneas and forever erase all traces of Troy's bloodline by siccing Latin tribe and their allies on Trojans.

Yes, if they don't get out soon, they'll be screwed – death would actually be by far the kindest thing that'd happen to them.

"Sephie's staying behind even with knowing this?" Annabeth voiced her own misgivings, spying a small dot of light that indicated the end of the passageway.

"She was raised on the shield, meaning she has the legion behind her, so politicians can't do much," Hazel told them as they hurried to the end of the passageway, where Argo II was floating above them in all its glory and being relatively unguarded. "We, on the other hand, don't have that protection. She'll be fine."

"If you say so."

Annabeth hated trusting people she didn't know well. It was a flaw of hers, that hubris – if she knew and trusted someone, it meant they were good at their job, and if she didn't know them, she couldn't trust them – but so far she hadn't erred a single time. Leaving allegiances aside, Luke, Thalia and Sephie all doubled down on their promises of what they were capable of and more than delivered in the past. Hazel was an unknown, and Annabeth struggled to trust her on her word.

However, she did survive a quest with Sephie, that did count in Annabeth's books. For now though, she had to focus on her own quest, one step at the time.

Step one: get everyone safe and alive out of Camp Jupiter.

Step two: get a prophecy for the quest Athena gave her.

Step three: blast Gaea to kingdom come.

Step four: relax, for once in her life.


End file.
